Stimulus packages can save Australia: IMF
Phillip Coorey |
March 20, 2009 - 5:15AM
THE outlook for the international economy has been downgraded significantly, raising fears that Australia's already bleak unemployment, revenue and growth forecasts will deteriorate further.
The latest outlook published by the International Monetary Fund last night says the global economy is expected to contract this year for the first time in 60 years.
It also backs the stimulus packages introduced by many governments, including the Commonwealth, but says recovery depends on further action
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The IMF says advanced economies will suffer "deep recessions" this year, and forecasts growth in the US, Europe and Japan will be slower than it had predicted.
The Government will take political comfort from the IMF's view that recovery depends on further policy actions along the lines of those already taken in Australia, including measures to buttress the banks and stimulate the economy with packages equivalent to 2 per cent of GDP
The Opposition stepped up its criticism of the Government's handling of the economy.
"Every step you have taken has made things worse," said the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull. "Your incompetence is a disgrace."
He likened the Australian Business Investment Partnership, or so-called Ruddbank - designed to plug funding gaps in commercial property - to a return to the Labor state bank fiascos of the 1980s that exposed taxpayers to failed commercial property ventures.
"Talk about a dog returning to its own vomit," Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Rudd said the IMF figures would expose his opponent as existing "in a universe completely disconnected with what is actually going on in the global economy and its roll-on consequences for Australians, their jobs, their families and their communities".
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/stimulus-packages-can-save-austral...Australia leads global economic recovery
Washington correspondent Kim Landers
Thu Apr 22, 2010 A new report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Australia is one of the leaders as the global economy recovers from a severe recession.
The IMF has released its twice yearly report on the world economy as Treasurer Wayne Swan prepares to attend meetings of the G20 and the IMF in Washington.
The IMF says that after enduring what became known as the Great Recession, the world's economy is undergoing a rapid, but patchy, recovery.
The chief economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, Olivier Blanchard, says the global recovery has evolved better than expected.
But he also says new and formidable challenges are looming.
"Achieving strong, sustained and balanced growth will not be easy," he said.
"It will require more work, mainly fiscal consolidation in advanced countries, exchange rate adjustments and rebalancing of demand across the world."
The IMF report says the recovery in major advanced economies will be "relatively sluggish" and the United States is off to a better start than Europe and Japan.
However Australia has been singled out for praise.
"Australia and the newly industrialised Asian economies are off to a strong start and will likely stay in the lead," the report says
.
IMF praises Australia
Monday, May 2, 2011On the eve of the Reserve Bank board meeting to consider interest rates, Australia has been held out as a paragon of economic virtue
While the strong Australian dollar flattens part of the economy, the International Monetary Fund has only praise for policymakers' hands-off approach.
The IMF says Asia should follow Australia's example.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/business/items/201105/s3205880.htm
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