Report

Fall Economic Statement 2023: Issues for Parliamentarians

Dec 7, 2023

To assist parliamentarians in their budgetary deliberations, this report highlights key issues arising from the 2023 Fall Economic Statement.

Supplementary Data (xlsx)

Highlights

Revisions to the private sector economic outlook and fiscal developments in the Fall Economic Statement lower the outlook for the budgetary balance by $18.7 billion (or $3.7 billion per year, on average) over 2023-24 to 2027 28 relative to Budget 2023.
The Government announced $23.6 billion in new spending that was partially offset by $2.9 billion in “refocusing and reallocation” spending measures. On a net basis, new measures further reduce the budgetary balance by $20.7 billion (or $3.4 billion per year, on average) over 2023-24 to 2028-29.
The Fall Economic Statement expands on the Budget 2023 commitment to refocus government spending, with the goal to identify an additional $2.4 billion in savings over 2025-26 to 2028-29. In addition, the Government intends to reallocate $0.5 billion in originally planned spending.
There is currently little information available on the status of $15.4 billion in Budget 2023 spending reviews and the additional $2.4 billion in savings announced in the Fall Economic Statement. Further, there is currently no publicly available information related to the $3.6 billion in spending to be reallocated in 2023-24.
Since Budget 2021, the Government has projected a total of $212.8 billion in new fiscal room. Essentially all of this fiscal room has now been exhausted through increased spending (on a net basis), with only $0.5 billion used to reduce the deficit (on a cumulative basis). Of the $212.8 billion in new fiscal room, $188.8 billion (89 per cent) has been used to finance new non-COVID 19 measures over 2021-22 to 2028-29.