Economist argues treasurer should ‘be crowing about’ Australian...

Economist argues treasurer should ‘be crowing about’ Australian economy

“No, they are not,” Eslake said, adding he thought Chalmers was taken slightly out of context because he also blamed global uncertainty for harming the economy.

“While these figures released today shows that the economy has slowed almost to a crawl, I think it is stretching it to say that the economy has been smashed,” Eslake said this afternoon.

“In contrast, the UK, Canada and New Zealand have had multiple quarters of negative economic growth. We haven’t.”

He noted strong population growth had saved Australia’s economy from shrinking, but said Canada and New Zealand had faster population growth yet still suffered a greater economic contraction.

“In addition the unemployment rate here has only risen by 0.6 of a percentage point from its low in mid-2022,” Eslake said. “Whereas in the US, it had risen by 0.9 of a percentage point. In the UK was by 1.4 [percentage points]. And in Canada, it has risen by 1.6 percentage points – as it has in New Zealand.”

While inflation in Australia hasn’t come down as quickly as other Western economies, Eslake said it had still fallen while the country paid “a much smaller price” in unemployment and interest rate increases than others.

“I think that is something, if I were the treasurer, I would be crowing about, rather than bemoaning,” he argued.