Sydney, Sep 29 : The Australian government released the final budget outcome for the 2024-25 financial year on Monday, with a final deficit of about 18 billion Australian dollars (about 11.8 billion US dollars), lower than previously forecast.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher handed down the annual budget outcome on Monday, revealing a final underlying cash deficit of just under 10 billion Australian dollars, or 0.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), at the end of the 2024-25 financial year on June 30, reports Xinhua news agency.

The government's Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) 2025, released earlier this year, forecast a deficit of 27.9 billion Australian dollars for 2024-25. The 2022 PEFO forecast a deficit of 47.1 billion Australian dollars in 2024-25.

Chalmers and Gallagher said in a joint statement that final budget outcomes have been a combined 209 billion Australian dollars, better than projected since the governing Labor Party won power at the 2022 election.

"In dollar terms, we've made more progress on the budget in three years than any government in history," they said.

"It's a reminder that we have one of the strongest budgets in the G20."

They attributed the improved position to a stronger labour market, saying that more Australians were working more and earning more.

Australia's gross debt was 928.6 billion Australian dollars, 33.5 per cent of GDP, at the end of the 2024-25 financial year. The 2022 PEFO forecast that gross debt would hit about 1.12 trillion Australian dollars in 2024-25.

Meanwhile, a new report showed that an Australian national biobank platform for streamlining access to human biospecimens and data for biomedical research could deliver 39 million Australian dollars (about 25.62 million US dollars) worth of annual benefits.

These benefits would stem from improved coordination across Australian biobanks and cohort studies, enhancing research efficiency and outcomes, according to the report released Monday by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency.

/IANS