Swan highlights Australia’s superior economic condition on latest MYEFO
The Australian economy is in superior shape and enjoys considerable lead time as against the economic status of other leading nations, according to Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan.
Releasing the country's Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) on Tuesday, Mr Swan pointed to huge prospects of new investments that he said would spawn additional jobs and curtail Australia's unemployment rate and further fire up the gathering momentum on economic recovery.
He said that economic indicators are pointing to solid growth projections that only underscore Australia's strong and resilient economy even amidst the uncertainty that seem to rule the international economic environment.
Amidst the global struggle that were accentuated by rising unemployment, public debts and stalled recoveries, Mr Swan highlighted Australia's lead over other economies as its growth forecast is expected to register 3.25 percent in 2010/11 and further improve to 3.75 percent in the following financial year.
Also, Mr Swan said that Australians need not to worry on the threat of dwindling job availabilities as the country's unemployment rate is consistently sliding down, with projections that figures would dip further to 4.5 percent by the second half of calendar year 2012.
On the back of the encouraging figures, the deputy prime minister expressed confidence that the Labor Party's election pledges would all be fulfilled as allocations have already been made on such initiatives, which would be funded by the government's contingency reserve.
However, the reality of lower government revenue was all but present as Mr Swan admitted that the surging value of the Aussie dollar would push down the overall tax collection to $10 billion, with the mining tax and corporate tax bearing most of the brunt of the slide.
Mr Swan clarified though that revisions on the mineral resource rent tax revenues would only be contributed by the strong local currency as he admitted that the outlook for better savings appear to be dim at this point, which could possibly affect the implementation of some regional infrastructure projects.
While he noted that the rising Australian dollar could hurt the federal government's revenue prospects, overreacting on its increasing level would bring about more damages as he emphasised his calls on the parliament to support government efforts that would pave the way for a return to budget surplus by 2013.
Mr Swan said that cross-party cooperation would lend sufficient support to the "fiscal discipline and the fiscal settings that we have put in place," which he said would push Australia towards unprecedented prosperity.