Like its Labor counterparts in Canberra, Victoria and Queensland, the NSW Labor government has handed down a bigger-spending expansionary budget that risks stoking inflation and putting pressure on the Reserve Bank to lift interest rates.

Tuesday’s budget shows that this year’s deficit has blown out to $9.7 billion. The surplus forecast for the next financial year is now a forecasted $3.6 billion deficit, with the next three budgets set to stay in the red.