The Turnbull government won't be locked into an "artificial deadline" for returning the budget to surplus, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said, ruling out stimulus spending to boost the economy.

Figures released last week showed the economy shrunk by 0.5 per cent last quarter, the biggest drop since the global financial crisis.

Senator Cormann, speaking ahead of the mid-year budget review on December 19, said he was not expecting fourth quarter results to follow suit. Two consecutive negative growth results signify a technical recession.

Since the surprising result, both the government and the opposition have shied away from painting the economy in such a negative light, but Labor has used the figures to attack the Coalition's "economic mismanagement".