Tax revenue from the jobs saved by the federal government's economic stimulus will help pay down government debt at a greater rate, a study shows.
Each dollar from the roughly $30 billion of cash handouts given to taxpayers at the height of the global financial crisis, generated 75 cents in additional gross domestic product (GDP), Lateral Economics' Repaying the Fiscal Stimulus study estimated.
"As our economy turned down in late 2008, Australians' spending kept other Australians in work," Lateral Economics chief executive Nicholas Gruen said in a statement.
"And those kept in work repaid the favour by continuing to pay their taxes."
Also $26.5 billion was budgeted for additional infrastructure as a stimulus measure and generated an extra 36 cents of income tax for each dollar spent.
The study has been released a week after 50 academic economists published an open letter in support of the government's fiscal stimulus measures....etc etc
