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// Methodology
Net Debt — Methodology and Sources
What this measures
Net debt of the general government sector as reported in the Victorian Treasury's Budget Paper 2, Statement of Finances. NSW and QLD comparators use the equivalent general-government-sector measure from each state's annual budget papers.
How values are derived
| Toggle | Field used | Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Default (nominal) | valueNominal | Direct $bn figure as published |
| Inflation-adjusted | valueReal | nominal × (CPI[base] / CPI[year]) |
| Per capita | valuePerCapita | (nominal × 10^9) / ERP[year, state] |
| Per capita + inflation-adjusted | valueRealPerCapita | per-capita applied to real value |
CPI base year: 2023-24, RBA Statistical Table G1, annual financial-year average. Population: ABS Estimated Resident Population at 30 June (ABS 3101.0 / 3218.0).
Caveats
- Net debt definition changed in FY18 for Victoria; the published series is consistent post-FY18.
- General-government-sector excludes public non-financial corporations (PNFC). When commentators cite "Victoria's total debt" they often mean general government plus PNFC; this chart shows the narrower general-government measure for cross-state comparability.
- Real values shift each annual refresh as the CPI base year is re-pinned to the latest complete FY. The shift is documented in the change log.
v0.1 status
This release uses hand-keyed seed values transcribed from the public Vic, NSW and QLD Treasury
Budget Papers. The pipeline architecture is in place; the v1.0 release will replace seed values with
automated PDF extraction (pipeline/lib/pdf.py). Verify against the latest BP before citing
externally.
Sources
- Victoria: DTF Vic — State Budget (Budget Paper 2)
- New South Wales: NSW Budget (Budget Paper 1)
- Queensland: Queensland Budget (Budget Strategy and Outlook)
- CPI: RBA Statistical Tables (Table G1)
- Population: ABS Regional Population
Annotations on this chart
- 2019-20: COVID-19 — onset of pandemic spending, fiscal year ending 30 June 2020.
- 2020-21: S&P downgrade AAA to AA — Standard & Poor's downgraded Victoria's long-term credit rating.
- 2021-22: Big Build acceleration — peak year of capital programme drawdown.
Change log
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2025-05-20 | v0.1 initial seed values from public Treasury BPs |