Budget overview information

The budget overview information shall include– (a) the economic and other outcomes and assumptions that have been used in preparing those fiscal estimates, including, but not limited to, key national accounts and balance of payments data such as gross domestic product and gross domestic product growth rates; average and accumulated annual inflation; exchange rates; domestic interest rates; employment; exports and imports; and influential external information such as foreign income and foreign interest rates; (b) the consistency of the fiscal outlook with the underlying macroeconomic framework and the role that fiscal policy plays in supporting economic growth; (c) aggregate and important actual and expected (d) for all new measures - both revenue and expenditures - their rationale, the estimate of their cost, an analysis of how those measures will be funded, and the long-term implications of those measures on net debt; (e) an explanation of progress on key fiscal indicators, and an explanation of differences between forecasted and actual fiscal data for the first five months of the current fiscal year and the previous two years; 172 Finance and Audit (Reform) (f) a statement of the budget deficit and the source of financing, or in the case of a surplus, how the net debt stock will be reduced; and (g) such other information as may be considered necessary by the Minister.