The Treasurer has pointed the finger at successive interest rate rises for a stagnating economy. The government is anticipating weak economic growth when figures are released this week.
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00:00Treasurer Jim Chalmers is getting ahead of these new national accounts figures that will
00:07be released on Wednesday.
00:09They're set to show if and by how much the economy is growing.
00:13Now the figures from the March quarter, so the first three months of the year, showed
00:17that the economy barely grew at just 0.1%.
00:22And Jim Chalmers, in this statement ahead of those figures Wednesday, says that he wouldn't
00:27be surprised if, quote, the growth is soft and subdued.
00:32He's pointing the figure at both global uncertainty and interest rate rises, which he says are
00:37smashing the economy.
00:40Strong language there from the Treasurer.
00:42Of course, we've had those 13 rate rises since May 2022.
00:47And we did hear from Assistant Minister in the federal government, Matt Thistlethwaite,
00:51this morning speaking on Sky News.
00:53He says that, of course, interest rates are a decision for the RBA, so that's a matter
00:58for them, but that the government wants the RBA to take into account that the impact that
01:04interest rate rises are already having on Australian households and small businesses.
01:09So the government doesn't want the RBA to go too far.
01:13In response, we've heard from the Coalition.
01:15They've taken these comments as an extraordinary attack on the independent RBA and says that
01:21the RBA is just making decisions in relation to things like government spending.
01:27So these new national accounts figures due Wednesday will be one to watch.