MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) May 7, 2013--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its 'AAA/Stable/A-1+' issuer credit ratings on the State of Victoria are not immediately affected by the Victorian government's announcement of its 2013-2014 budget. We consider that the fiscal 2014 budget is largely in line with our expectations for the rating level. In our opinion, despite further downward revisions of its revenues (from both its own-sources and GST transfers from the Commonwealth of Australia), the Victoria government's budgetary performance remains solid. The government has responded to these revenue pressures by constraining expenditure and introducing a number of revenue measures. We expect that these policies will ensure the general government accrual operating position remains in surplus over the
