The Budget Timeline | Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development

Budget Timeline At a Glance

The budget process calendar is drawn below - you can use the filter to switch between Budgeting publications and Reporting publications. Hover your mouse over the colourful dots to see the publications leading up to the Budget Speech by the Minister of Finance in June!

Below the timeline the information is also presented in a table.

The timelines are presented again below, with National documents in black and Local documents in blue for clarity.

Pubication Date	Document	Sphere	Purpose of Document
End February	Budget Framework Paper (BFP)	National	First publication of estimates for the next fiscal year
End April	Draft Budget Estimates	National	Draft budget estimates themselves
	Background to the Budget	National	The economic context for the choices made in the budget
	Ministerial policy statement (MPS)	National	Accompanies and justifies the draft budget on a ministerial level
	Budget Framework Paper (BFP)	Local	First publication of estimates of expenditure and revenue for the next fiscal year
End May	Public investment plan	National	Details the government’s capital projects in the approved budget
End May	Approved Budget Estimates	National	Presents the approved budget estimates, as approved by Parliament
Mid June	Budget Speech	National	Speech by the Minister of Finance presenting the approved budget
Mid June	Central government expenditure limits	National	Breaks the Approved Budget into quarterly spending limits for agencies
End July	Approved Budget (Contract Form B)	Local	Presents the approved budget estimates, as approved by Parliament
End July	Workplan	Local	Provides detailed information on government plans including quarterly outputs

The budget process itself is only part of the story, however. Once the budgets have been set government and Agencies are required to report performance against them throughout the year. The timeline for the quarterly and annual reports is set out below, again with National documents in black and Local documents in blue for clarity.

Publication Date	Document	Sphere	Purpose of Document
Within 1 month of the end of the quarter	Quarterly reports	National	Cumulative progress towards approved budget output targets and expected expenditure
Within three months of the end of the fiscal year	Annual Budget Performance report (ABPR)	National	Information on how the central government performed against the budget
Within six months of the end of the fiscal year	Audited financial statements (AFS)	National	The final audited financial figures for the year
Within 1 month of the end of the quarter	Quarterly reports	Local	Cumulative progress towards approved budget output targets and expected expenditure
Submitted to central government three months after the day of the period.	Annual report	Local	Information on how each local government performed against the budget