These forecasts have three main purposes:
•they provide a framework for presenting the economic context in which the budget is developed;
•most of the economic aggregates or their sub-components are used in the modelling of taxation and other revenue lines; and
•forecasts of nominal gross state product (GSP) are used to express key financial aggregates in relation to the size of the economy, such as non-financial public sector net debt to nominal GSP.
The spreadsheet below contains the seven published aggregates for the budget papers (Budget and Budget Update):
•real GSP growth;
•level of nominal GSP;
•employment growth;
•unemployment rate;
•growth in the consumer price index;
•growth in the wage price index; and
•annual population growth.