Talk of Australian budget surplus over the top- minister

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner Sunday downplayed the prospect of the country's out-performing economy pushing the budget into surplus within a year, saying the situation remained fragile.

The Australian economy has been dubbed the "wonder from Down Under" for its resilience during the global financial crisis, which drove major advanced economies into recession.

But Tanner said speculation that the economy, which posted growth of 2.7 percent last year, would power the budget back into surplus within 12 months "totally over the top".

"That would be really nice if that were going to happen but I think you can virtually discount any of those very rosy projections," he told Channel Nine.

"The economy's still fragile; growth is still pretty bumpy and... even though we've managed to keep unemployment low, underneath that there has been a substantial reduction in average hours worked so people have still got their jobs, but a lot of them are actually working fewer hours."

Last week economists said the falling jobless rate -- now 5.3 percent -- could make a balancing of the federal budget, to be released in May, a possibility sooner than expected.

But Tanner said while the government of centre-left Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was committed to getting the budget back into surplus, it would be "a long, hard road".

"Obviously we're hopeful that the outlook over the next few years will end up being a bit brighter than we projected towards the end of last year," he said.

"But, we don't presume anything and if that does occur, my guess is it will be a pretty modest change in the picture, nothing like what is being projected. I think people should take a cold shower on this one."

In November, Australia warned it was on course for a record budget deficit 57.7 billion dollars (52.8 billion US), or 4.7 percent of GDP, but would be able to balance the books by 2016.

The Australian economy, boosted by massive government stimulus and commodities sales to China, grew in every quarter last year despite the biggest global collapse since the Great Depression.