N.Z. BUDGET DEFICIT WIDENS IN 10 MONTHS TO JANUARY
New Zealand's budget deficit in the
10 months to January widened to 4.37 billion N.Z. Dlrs from
3.41 billion in the 10 months to January 1986, government
figures show.
    Revenue rose to 12.92 billion dlrs from 10.82 billion,
while spending climbed to 17.28 billion from 14.24 billion.
    Taking into account expenditure on major energy project
debt totalling 2.28 billion, as against nothing in the earlier
period, total net expenditure was 19.57 billion dlrs.
    Finance Minister Roger Douglas said in a statement the
deficit was on course for the year-end forecast.
    Douglas said, "Net expenditure to this point in the year was
about as we would have expected it to be, while revenue was
slightly ahead of forecast."
    He said, "Revenue before provisional tax flows is looking
encouraging at this stage in the year."
    But he said considerable uncertainty remains about the
year-end revenue result, because of difficulty predicting the
size of March tax collections.
 REUTER
