As of today; Australia officially has the world's best performing economy - rated AAA by the three major global ratings agencies & now also by China's rating's agency; 'Dagong'.
That's AAA + AAA + AAA + AAA = 12A economy of which mainstream Australians should be very proud!
According to television news reports this morning; Dagong even regards Australia's national debt as readily serviceable since it is relatively low and the cost of servicing it is also historically low.
So much for Tony Abbott's trademark hyperbole and all the exaggeration, misrepresentation and scaremongering on this forum.
For the data deniers of all those wonderful macro-economic KPIs: OCR @ historically low levels of just 3%, CPI of just 2.1%, Record Numbers Employed in Australia, 5.4% unemployment [ie. despite the GFC, still below the long term average], public debt @ ~25% of GDP, Budget close to surplus and projected for 2013-14, high $Aud, etc. ...
So what about the flies in our macro-economic ointment which are still dragging down public confidence:
1. The record level of private debt fuelled by the most profligate ever Howard-Costello Govts. has finally stabilised and is beginning to subside from that ~160% of annual disposable income level. Mainstream Australians are winding back their exposure to debt.
2. The ongoing and obscene failure by the resources sector to deliver its fair share of tax revenues - Wayne Swan's apparent inability to get mainstream Australians a fair share from the exploitation of our environment by a hostile sector of the economy that apparently never ever makes any money for investors, which constantly writes down and writes-off assets. A sector that always needs special incentives, favorable business environments and the expertise of government to secure overseas markets. That market sector that leaves the environment it exploited trashed as it delists or deserts.
3. Tony Abbott's wanton, negative and highly destructive mouthpiece has reached fever pitch; inspiring those who loathe Julia Gillard to vent their spleens and to trash our economy as never before.
IMO Australia has three major risks to its economy; a major cooling off in China, the ongoing social and economic turbulence in Europe and the impact of implementing Tony Abbott's great big unfunded nanny state for the wealthy.
Australia is well-placed to manage the first two of these risks but on track for economic disaster courtesy of the third.
