And the markets will be keeping a close eye on tonight's budget. Economist Paul Bloxham says while we're not facing a budget emergency, it is important to get back to surplus in the medium term. 

 

“Very small government in the scheme of things. Government's net debt is 12 percent of GDP which is extraordinarily low when you compare it with the rest of the world. And if you look at one other statistics, it is very useful and that is the proportion of government spending as a share of GDP, we have the third smallest proportion of spending as a share of GDP across the OECD members. So, we actually have a fairly small government to start with. We need to fix it up in the medium term, but it doesn't need to be an aggressive repair job. ”

 

And official figures out today have revealed a rise in the number of loans taken out to build and buy newly-constructed homes in March. Figures from the Bureau of Statistics show a 2.1 percent rise in the number of loans taken out to build a house, while loans to buy a new house rose by 1.6 percent. However, the total value of loans taken out during the month fell by 1.1 percent.