Treasurer warns of worsening inflation scenario
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned inflation in Australia “will be worse before it gets better”.
Appearing on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, Chalmers said it was likely that inflation would be significantly higher than the 5.1% figure in the March quarter.
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor, Philip Lowe, previously said last week that he expected inflation would peak at 7% before falling in 2023. In response, Chalmers said he felt this figure “doesn’t seem to be wildly off mark”.
“Inflation will be worse before it gets better,” he said. “That’s the expectation across the board and that’s a difficult situation that we need to deal with before inflation hopefully moderates through the course of next year.
“Inflation will be significantly higher than what was in the last Government’s most recent Budget, certainly higher than the 5.1% we saw in March."
Chalmers said he would be able to give a more accurate forecast at the end of July.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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