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AUSTRALIA-ECONOMY-GDP
Australia central bank trims growth forecast
SYDNEY, Feb 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Reserve Bank of Australia on Friday cut
growth forecasts for this year and next, citing the effects of a weaker
housing market.
The central bank said growth would reach 2.5 percent in the middle of this
year, well down from the 3.25 percent it previously projected.
Bill Evans, an economist at Westpac IQ, said the Bank’s revised forecast
contained “some acknowledgement of spillover effects from declining house
prices”.
The projections for the whole of 2019 and 2020 were also revised down to
three percent and 2.75 percent respectively.
The figures fuelled a fierce political debate over the state of the economy
ahead of May elections.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal government has seen years of solid
economic growth as its trump card in the run up the vote.
The opposition Labor Party called the latest figures “a major blow to the
Liberal Party’s claim of good economic management.”
Morrison brushed aside the revision, saying the projections were “now
consistent with our budget forecast”.
BSS/AFP/HR/1205