Key concedes new budget forecasts could be a 'small' deficit

By Pattrick Smellie
Nov. 24 (BusinessDesk) - Prime Minister John Key has intimated for the first time that the Treasury's half-year fiscal and economic update on Dec. 16 could change the forecast of a budget surplus to a small deficit, although he is optimistic that by the June 30 year-end a surplus will still be posted.
"Even if it was to show a small negative number, it doesn't mean that's what the number will be when the surplus, or deficit if that was to be the case, is finally determined for the 14/15 year," Key told his post-Cabinet...
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