FISCAL POLICY USED BY AUSTRALIA TO DEAL WITH ITS DEBT

The Commonwealth Budget is the main instrument of fiscal policy in Australia. It is the estimated revenue and expenditure for the next year and future years of the government. 
Right now Australia has some of the strongest economic fundamentals in the whole developed world. 
For this reason the Australian Government remains committed to the medium term fiscal strategy, which they hope will keep the budget on track and so re gain economic surplus. They believe they will be able to reach economic surplus by the year 2016-17.
Over the past decade Australia's resource sector has contributed immensely
 to Australia's economic growth, creating a big amount of income. 

From the information gathered on oecd.org, I was able to see how Australia's economy has transformed from 2008 to 2013. All the data is given in US dollars ($). Australia's government spending has increased, in 2008 it was 149.2 billion dollars and in 2011 it was 176.1 billions dollars. This obviously lead to an increase in investment, and in 2011 the investment was of 274.1 billions of dollars. The real GDP, that is the actual output of a nation adjusted for changes in the price level from a base year, decreased significantly in 2008-2009, undergoing a change of 1.5%. Australia's GDP, which is what measures the value of a nation's output produced in a year, increased significantly during the years. in 2008 it was 848 billion dollars, whilst in 2012 it was 1041.2 billion dollars.The table below includes data on inflation rate in percentage change over previous period. 

Sadly for Australia, the government debt also increased during these years: from 2008 to 2013 it increased of 33.7%. 

AUSTRALIA
	Years
	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Government spending	149.2	162.5	167.7	176.1
Investment	238.7	248.7	248.6	274.1
Real GDP	2.4	1.5	2.6	2.4	3.6	2.6
GDP	848.0	899.4	937.1	986.7	1041.2
Unemplyment rates				5.1	5.2	5.6
Household spending	458.8	495.0	502.7	531.8
Inflation rate				3.3	1.8
Government deficit/surplus	-0.7	-0.5	-5.2	-3.6	-3.3	-1.8
Government debt	13.9	19.5	23.6	27.1	32.4	33.7