Ratings agency S&P Global has today highlighted NSW’s “excellent financial management” in an update to investors which reaffirmed the State’s double-A plus credit rating.
Treasurer Matt Kean said NSW remains the only Australian state with two triple-A credit ratings and a double-A plus rating which is testament to the NSW Liberal and Nationals Government’s long term economic plans.
“NSW has had the lowest unemployment rate among the states for the past five months with a near record monthly-low of 3.1 per cent in January 2023 and we remain on track to return the Budget to surplus in 2024-25,” Mr Kean said.
In the update, S&P Global said: “NSW has successfully implemented several rounds of savings measures and kept public sector wage growth relatively tight … although it faces pressure for higher pay from public sector unions.”
“NSW Labor’s plan to remove the public sector wage cap and relent to union pressure for pay rises linked to inflation would wipe out all the hard work to restore our Budget buffers and risk making inflation worse,” Mr Kean said.
S&P also added: “The NSW government’s longstanding focus on control of operating expenses contributes to our positive assessment of its financial management.”
“The people of NSW cannot afford to let Chris Minns and NSW Labor open the purse strings to union demands that would send the Budget spiralling into deficit,” Mr Kean said.
Fitch reaffirmed the State’s triple-A credit rating in November and Moody’s assigned a triple-A rating to NSW in September.