Is this the same IMF that painted a rosy picture in 2007 about the world economy and within 12 month we were hit by the GFC.
If Jonny Howard had not put 20 billion in pennies away and paid down debt to virtually Zero we would have been in a similiar situation to Greece.
From Trevor Sykes's Six Months of Panic: How the Global Financial Crisis Hit Australia.
"The Rudd Government was greatly aided by the fact it had inherited from its predecessor an economy which should have been the envy of the OECD.
Australia had almost zero federal debt, making it easier to plunge into fiscal deficit.
Before the GFC, Australian interest rates were at historically moderate levels, but were high compared to nations such as Japan and the United States. That meant the Reserve Bank of Australia (unlike its opposite numbers in Japan and America) had room to make meaningful cuts in interest rates and thus stimulate the economy through monetary policy.
The Australian banking system was, by and large, in good shape and much better structured than the banking system of the United States. The Australian banks certainly made blunders, but they were affordable losses which merely dented their profits."
