Australian government plays down budget surplus forecast
Updated
The Australian government is playing down predictions next month's budget will deliver a big surplus.
The treasurer, Wayne Swan, will hand down his first budget in two weeks and economists are expecting a surplus as high as $A18 billion ($US16.8 billion).
Mr Swan says the surplus will be big, but he warns other factors will have an impact.
"The fallout from what's occurring in the share market for example will most probably affect tax revenues, particularly capital gains tax," he said.
"So people cannot assume that the automatic revenue flows that they've seen to the budget from the boom in recent years will continue to flow through into this budget."
