CANBERRA, Oct 15 - Australia's government hopes to return to a budget surplus in 2014, two years earlier than forecast, thanks to stronger tax receipts and reduced expenses, a newspaper said on Thursday.
The Australian Financial Review, citing no sources, said government officials have begun identifying higher tax receipts and spending cuts that could reduce government debt by A$60 billion and balance the budget.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said in May it would take six years to return to surplus as the government borrowed heavily for stimulus spending to help steer around a global recession.
Swan predicted the deficit would balloon to a record A$57.6 billion in 2009-10 and net debt would climb to 13.8 percent of GDP in 2014 before dropping to 3.7 percent of GDP in 2020.
The government hoped reduced borrowing could see net debt peak at A$130 billion rather than the A$188 billion originally expected, trimming more than A$2 billion off the government's annual interest bill, the paper said.
Swan and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will give a mid-year budget update next month and are expected to revise the government's deficit position as well as forecasts for unemployment to reach 8.5 percent next year.
Australia this month became the first G20 nation to raise official interest rates in the aftermath of the international downturn, lifting the cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 percent and kicking off what most economists expect to be a gradual tightening to around 4.0 percent in 2010.
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