SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Thursday the country’s budget swung into a massive deficit of A$85.8 billion ($61.3 billion) in the year-ended June 2020 due to the government’s fiscal stimulus plan to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
The budget deficit is forecast to further expand to $184.5 billion deficit in 2020-21, Frydenberg said.
Australia on Wednesday posted its biggest one-day jump in new infections amid a surge in cases in the country’s second most populous state, which ordered nearly 5 million people to stay home unless for essential reasons two weeks earlier.
(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
