Treasury secretary praises economy
Treasury boss Martin Parkinson believes the national economic mindset has become far too gloomy at a time when Australia has an “incredibly bright future”.
The Treasury secretary told a special extension of this week’s Senate estimates hearings the economy was tracking the “sweet spot” of trend growth and low unemployment, with inflation in the middle of a 2 to 3 per cent target band.
But Dr Parkinson, who was unable to appear before senators earlier in the week because of overseas commitments, warned that although the transformation of some industries was “quite painful”, it would have to be handled carefully to take full advantage of future opportunities.
He said the “boom with the gloom” was a “bit overdone”.
“It’s almost as if most Australians tend to think we live in Greece. We don’t,” he told the committee hearing in Canberra yesterday.
“We actually have an incredibly bright future in front of us.”
Dr Parkinson said Australia’s prospects were “incredibly promising” and there would be amazing opportunities for businesses as the Asian middle class expanded in the next two decades.
By 2030, the Asia-pacific middle class – excluding the US – is expected to grow to 3.2 billion people, from 500 million now, driving markets for food, education, manufactured goods and tourism.
As such, Dr Parkinson said there were two ways to manage the current transformation in the local economy – by thinking about the sorts of industries that needed to be created, or by trying to hold on to industrial structures that “the world in a sense has passed by”. BREAKING NATIONAL NEWS
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