Stimulus still needed: Swan
The Australian economy will remain reliant on Federal Government stimulus next year, Treasurer Wayne Swan said following yesterday’s national accounts report that showed growth of just 0.2 percent in the September quarter.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics report found that the main drivers of economic growth for the September quarter were household spending on consumer goods and spending on new homes and government spending on infrastructure.
Swan said that without the Government’s stimulus program, the economy would have contracted in every one of the past four quarters. Instead, the only quarter to record negative growth was last December’s.
”What we have avoided in avoiding four quarters of negative growth is the destruction of skills, is the destruction of capital that occurs when an economy goes through a very, very sharp contraction,” he said.
”There are still too many Australians unemployed, and unfortunately unemployment is still expected to rise.”
The Australian economy will remain reliant on Federal Government stimulus next year, Treasurer Wayne Swan said, following yesterday’s national accounts report that showed growth of just 0.2 percent in the September quarter.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics report found that the main drivers of economic growth for the September quarter were household spending on consumer goods and spending on new homes and government spending on infrastructure.
Swan said that without the Government’s stimulus program, the economy would have contracted in every one of the past four quarters. Instead, the only quarter to record negative growth was last December’s.
‘”What we have avoided in avoiding four quarters of negative growth is the destruction of skills, is the destruction of capital that occurs when an economy goes through a very, very sharp contraction,” he said.
‘”There are still too many Australians unemployed, and unfortunately unemployment is still expected to rise.”
