Canberra, April 12 (IANS) Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesaday said the country will avoid a recession but warned the economy will slow significantly.
Speaking after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its latest global outlook report, downgrading global growth forecast to 2.8 percent for 2023, Chalmers said Australia will not be immune from global headwinds, reports Xinhua news agency.
Australia’s gross domestic product grew by about 2.7 per cent in 2022, and the IMF expects growth to fall to 1.6 percent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2024.
The forecast is in line with projections from the Treasury, which has predicted a 1.5 per cent growth in 2023 and 2024.
“The situation in the world has become more complex and more challenging even over the course of the last few months, and so we won’t be completely immune from that,” Chalmers told the local media on Wednesday ahead of flying to Washington for meetings with his G20 counterparts.
“The Treasury does expect our own economy to slow considerably later this year because of that combination of a slowing global economy and the impact of higher interest rates here at home as well.”
Chalmers in May will hand down his second federal budget since taking office in 2022.
He said the government had to thread the needle on providing cost-of-living relief for Australians without adding to inflation.
“We need to lay the foundations for future growth in our economy, at the same time as we try and make ourselves more resilient to these sorts of international shocks,” he said.
