Mid-year budget review Dec 16: Treasurer

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has confirmed he will hand down the mid-year budget review on December 16.

He said the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook will show the budget is tracking better than forecast in May.

"In the May budget, we didn't factor in the Delta (coronavirus) outbreak ... yet we are still seeing some better budget outcomes than initially focused," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

The most recent monthly government financial accounts showed the underlying deficit running at $31.7 billion for the 2021/22 financial year as of September, smaller than the $39.4 billion deficit that had been expected after three months.

The deficit was forecast at $106.6 billion for the full financial year.

The national accounts for the September quarter released on Wednesday - which took into account the COVID-19 lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT - did show a contraction of 1.9 per cent in the economy, but smaller than economists had first feared.