MELBOURNE (Standard & Poor's) Oct. 27, 2003--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that the State of Victoria's actual financial results for fiscal 2003, which were released today, reinforces the state's 'AAA' rating. "The state came close to breaching its A$100 million operating surplus goal for 2003," noted Brendan Flynn, associate director, Public Finance Ratings. "However, this does not reflect government profligacy, as it was due mainly to the weakness of investment markets during the year and was a factor beyond the government's control. Furthermore, other measures of financial performance preferred by Standard & Poor's show that the state enjoyed an extremely strong financial performance in 2003." As part of the government's medium-term fiscal framework, it is committed to achieving
