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# Friday Fact – Mound Becomes Mountain
- URL: https://goodoil.news/friday-fact-mound-becomes-mountain/
- Published: 2022-06-30T20:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2022-06-30T18:42:51.000Z
- Author: Good Oil Staff
- Tags: Business, Economy, NZ, NZ Politics, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-16 23:04

Today’s Friday Fact is brought to you by *[The Facts](https://thefacts.nz/economy/government-debt-doubles-in-3-years/?ref=goodoil.news)*. Did you know that this Government’s Net Core Crown Debt doubled in just three years? The debt mound has become a mountain.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/thefacts_net_core_crown_debt_nz_2012_to_2023.png)

**Are we OK with this increase in government debt?**

**Notes:**

- The data series provided by Treasury started in the June 2012 year.
- We have used blue and red colour-coding to show which political party led the government in each year.
- The June 2018 year shows dual colours due to the election taking place on 23 September 2017, NZ First choosing their government coalition partner on 19 October, and the Labour-led Government governing from 26 October.
- We only showed one forecast year on the graph (2023) due to:
  - The large variance between the 2022 actuals and the 2021 budget. See [last week’s fact](https://thefacts.nz/economy/nz-govt-forecast-to-exceed-2021-budget-by-11-billion-additional-tax-12-17-billion-expenses-16/?ref=goodoil.news).
  - There is a general election in the 2024 year which could change Crown revenue, spending, and debt levels significantly.
- Net Core Crown Debt is the most commonly used economic indicator for government debt.
- We chose not to use the new debt metric that includes the NZSF (New Zealand Super Fund) and other amounts, due to:
  - The controversy surrounding this change.
  - Data tables from 2012-2023 only being available for the previous metric.
- The 2022 figure contains actuals to March 31st and then the Treasury forecast to June 30th.
- The 2023 forecast figure assumes net debt of $164 billion and GDP of $401 billion to get the 41% of GDP figure. These are forecast figures, so could change significantly.
- We’ve shown both $ and % values to help Kiwis better understand Crown/Government debt relative to GDP.
- Additional notes from Treasury can be found in the data source pages below.
- All numbers are provisional and subject to revision.

*Thank you to the Factors who helped pull this together.*

---

**SOURCES:**

[https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2022-05/befu22.pdf](https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2022-05/befu22.pdf?ref=goodoil.news) page 157.

[https://www.treasury.govt.nz/system/files/2022-05/fsgnz-9mths-mar22.xlsx](https://www.treasury.govt.nz/system/files/2022-05/fsgnz-9mths-mar22.xlsx?ref=goodoil.news) (for the actual figures to the end of March 2021).

Data published by The Treasury  
(c) Crown Copyright  
Licensed for use under the creative commons attribution licence (BY) 4.0

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