WELLINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government accounts on the first nine months of the 2016/17 financial year showed a surplus of 1.5 billion New Zealand dollars (1.036 billion U.S. dollars), compared to a forecast surplus of 147 million NZ dollars at the half year update, Finance Minister Steven Joyce said on Wednesday.
"Growing tax revenues coupled with lower-than- expected expenditure has resulted in the higher outturn," Joyce said.
"Tax revenue growth has softened a little last month, but over the nine months tax revenue is still up 7.3 percent compared to the same period last year."
Net debt currently stands at 23.8 percent of GDP.
Joyce attributed the surplus to "the hard work done by all Kiwis over the last three years," adding that New Zealand is one of the few developed countries currently running a fiscal surplus.
"These accounts show that if you have a strong economic plan and stick to it, you can achieve real progress," he said.
