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In Budget 2024, the Government announced $61.2 billion in new spending that was partially offset by $21.9 billion in revenue-raising measures. On a net basis, the new measures reduce the budgetary balance by $39.3 billion over 2023-24 to 2028-29.
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Budget 2024 marks the third consecutive fiscal plan in which the Government’s new measures—even after accounting for revenue-raising and spending reviews—have exceeded the incremental “fiscal room” resulting from economic and fiscal developments. Indeed, the $39.3 billion in (net) new measures announced in Budget 2024 more than exhaust the $29.1 billion in new fiscal room over 2023-24 to 2028-29.
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Budget 2024 indicates that the Government will attempt to achieve the savings announced in the 2023 Fall Economic Statement mostly through natural attrition in the federal public service. This planned reduction would represent a shift in the trend increase in the size of the federal public service in recent years. It is also unclear how new measures announced in Budget 2024 will impact planned full-time equivalents over the medium term.
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The Government also announced in Budget 2023 and the 2023 Fall Economic Statement its intention to reallocate previously announced spending that has yet to occur. While some information has been provided in the Estimates, it remains difficult to track the overall plans, progress, and results of these measures as there is no central tracking document which is publicly available.
