The New Zealand government's accounts were unexpectedly in surplus in the first three months of the 2017 financial year, with the provisional tax take from companies tracking ahead of forecast.

The operating balance before gains and losses was a surplus of $222 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, turning around a deficit of $545 million a year earlier, and ahead of the projected $503 million shortfall in the May budget projections. That was largely due to the 6.7 percent increase in taxation to $17.34 billion, which was $523 million ahead of expectations due to a higher than expected provisional taxes bolstering the corporate tax take, while GST was supported by residential investment and tourist spending.

"Most of the variance was caused by provisional tax being higher than forecast for both revenue and receipts, indicating that taxable profits for the current tax year may be higher than expected," Treasury said in notes to the financial statements. "Based on GDP outturns to June and Treasury estimates for the September quarter, GST arising from residential investment and inbound tourism was above forecast."

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