Costs in areas such as health and defence have increased, partly triggered by events such as the war in the Middle East, the Treasury warned in a statement sent to the media on Friday.Meanwhile, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said "responsible economic management and spending restraint" would be "defining features" of the 12 May budget."That will be crucial in the context of important and unavoidable spending pressures," Chalmers said in the statement Chalmers said his government was "making space in the budget for things that matter" — citing hospitals, defence, natural disasters, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listings, and a response to the Bondi terror attack — but warned budgetary allocations in these areas would not be as large as the government previously hoped."The conflict in the Middle East also means higher borrowing costs on the debt that we inherited will hit the budget hard, and higher inflation that will flow through to higher payment costs," he added.Some of the biggest pressures on the budget will be expenditure on hospitals, defence investment, and PBS listings, new Treasury and Finance figures show