Net Debt as % of GSP — Methodology and Sources

What this measures

State net debt (general government sector) divided by Gross State Product, expressed as a percent. A debt-burden ratio that controls for the size of the state economy, so debt levels are directly comparable across Vic, NSW and QLD.

How values are derived

net debt (BP general government) / GSP (ABS 5220.0 current prices) × 100

The Vic, NSW and QLD net-debt series come from each state's annual budget paper (general government sector). GSP comes from ABS 5220.0 — Australian National Accounts: State Accounts.

Why % of GSP matters

A $135bn debt position is meaningless without scale. As a % of GSP it lets readers judge "how much of an economic year does this debt represent?" and compare across states with different economy sizes.

Caveats

• Both numerator and denominator change at each annual refresh — the latest year may show Treasury-estimated GSP that gets revised by ABS.
• General-government-sector excludes PNFC debt; using consolidated whole-of-state debt would shift Vic ratios up by approximately 5-10 percentage points.

v0.1 status

Hand-keyed seed values pending automated extraction.

Sources

• Net debt: Vic / NSW / QLD Budget Papers (see net-debt for full citations)
• GSP: ABS 5220.0 — Australian National Accounts: State Accounts