WELLINGTON, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The financial statements of the New Zealand government for the six months ended on Dec. 31, 2017 continued the positive trends, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said on Tuesday.

Better-than-expected employment growth, higher residential investment, together with private consumption at the end of 2017, contributed to the government's accounts which continued to track slightly better than Treasury's forecasts, Robertson said in a statement.

The tax revenue was 597 million NZ dollars (435 million U.S. dollars) higher than forecast, and is currently 1.7 billion NZ dollars better than the same point of last year. The expenses remained above the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) forecast by 166 million NZ dollars. The Operating Balance Before Gains And Losses was a surplus of 1.1 billion NZ dollars over the six months, 779 million NZ dollars above forecast, the financial statements said.

Net debt was 23.2 percent of GDP at the end of December, similar to the HYEFU forecast of 23.4 percent of GDP and was on track to be below 20 percent of GDP by 2022, meeting the Budget Responsibility Rule, Robertson said.

Meanwhile, Goods and Services Tax was 196 million NZ dollars above forecast in the six months, statistics show. Treasury said this was due to residential investment and private consumption being higher than expected. Customs and excise duties also came in at 129 million NZ dollars above forecast, the statements said.

These positive results chime with the recent consumer, employee and business confidence surveys, which have shown positive results, Robertson said.

"At this point in the year, these results indicate the economy is tracking well," he said, adding that the government is committed to seeing this continue and ensuring sustainable growth and a fair share for all. (1 NZ dollars = 0.73 U.S. dollars)