MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) May 6, 2014--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 fiscal year ending June 30, 2015 budget. The budget is largely in line with our expectations. In our view, the Victorian government's budgetary performance is benefiting from several years of strong fiscal discipline, as evidenced by expenditure increasing less than revenue growth. As a consequence of this fiscal discipline, the Victorian government has introduced some modest revenue and expenditure measures without significantly affecting either its budgetary performance or debt burden. Further supporting the state's fiscal position is the stabilization of its own-source revenues. We expect
