The first Budget of the Labour-led coalition yesterday included few surprises, largely because of Finance Minister Grant Robertson's determination to stick within the party's 20 percent debt limit - part of the "Budget Responsibility Rules" it set before the election in an attempt to calm voters' and businesses' fears of a big-spending, big-taxing Labour government. They have more than met the target. A higher than forecast level of GDP and larger surpluses mean net core Crown debt is forecast to fall to 19.1 percent of GDP by June 2022.Operational spending, especially on health and education, increased but capital expenditure was less than many commentators hoped for given the infrastructure deficit.A policy of the junior coalition partner, the Greens, made it through, with the Government committing to establishing an independent fiscal institution (IFI) to provide the public with non-partisan costings of political parties' policies and assessments of government forecasts.ASB economists described this as possibly "the lasting legacy of Budget 2018".The Greens will also be pleased with the promised establishment of a Green Investment Fund, to make investments that will both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide a financial return. The Fund will receive a NZ$100 million capital investment from the Government and operate independently. In tandem with the Budget, the New Zealand Debt Management Office released an update on its debt issuance programme, announcing that it plans to increase its sale of government bond, taking gross issuance to NZ$38 billion over the next four years. At the same time it will trim NZ$2 billion from its short-term Treasury bill issuance program. The Office said this reflected the more flexible approach to Treasury bill issuance that it would be implementing from July.