Australian-British Chamber of Commerce
A stark economic picture, but a pragmatic and proportionate policy response.
The Federal Government’s July Economic and Fiscal Outlook (“July EFO”) documents show just how deeply the Australian economy has been affected by the COVID-19 public health crisis over the last six months. Additional outbreaks over the last month have contributed further to the uncertain outlook for the coming months.
The Australian economy is expected to decline overall by 3.75 percent in calendar 2020. Reduced receipts and commencement of a program of $289 billion in fiscal and balance sheet support contributed to the federal budget for the 2019-20 financial year being in deficit to the tune of $86 billion, compared to a forecast in last December’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (“MYEFO”) papers of a surplus of $5 billion. Treasury forecasts that the deficit for 2020-21 will be a much larger $185 billion.
Read the KPMG analysis of this announcement on 23 July 2020.
