Budget gleans $3b dividend from RBA

The Commonwealth budget has been handed a $3.2 billion dividend from the Reserve Bank for the 2016/17 financial year.

In its annual report released on Thursday, the central bank says its earnings for 2015/16 amounted to $4.1 billion, of which $1.4 billion was transferred to its reserves, which now stand at $14.1 billion.

"Following this transfer, a sum of $3,222 million was payable as a dividend to the Commonwealth. The treasurer decided that the full amount of this dividend would be paid to the Commonwealth in 2016/17," the report says.