Treasury head John Fraser in the Senate this morning on global growth:
“There is no clear path ahead…The volatility has been significant. Some would argue that the interest rate increase would be factor…others say it’s China, and others would… point to the weakness in commodity prices, which is far greater than people have been expecting, certainly we were expecting…We are probably swimming against the tide in Australia…The weak points clearly remain South Australia, of which we’re all aware and that’s a broader structural issue…Western Australia…is clearly doing worse than what was expected at budget time…The strength in the labour market is encouraging.”
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.