MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) May 13, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its unsolicited ratings and outlook on the Commonwealth of Australia (AAA/Stable/A-1+) are not immediately affected by the government's budget for the year ending June 30, 2015 (watch related CreditMatters TV segment titled, "Is Australia's Sovereign Rating On The Wane?", May 23, 2014). The Australian Government's latest budget projections indicate a more delayed return to balance than projected a year ago. Nonetheless, they remain broadly in line with our expectations. We expect that the government's budget performance will gradually improve over the medium term and that the general government debt burden will remain low (below 30% of GDP). The budget projects a moderate deficit of about 3%
