Canberra [Australia], May 13: Australia's Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned Australians to prepare for more global economic "volatility" over the next three-year term of the federal parliament.
Chalmers on Tuesday hailed the agreement between China and the United States to ease trade tensions as a "welcome development," but said that there is still a lot of volatility and unpredictability in the global economy.
"We welcome this announcement, but it's tempered a little bit by the understanding, the realization, that there's still a lot of uncertainty playing out in domestic economies around the world," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television.
Chalmers was on Monday officially re-appointed as the treasurer by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the governing Labor Party won a second three-year term in power in a landslide victory in the May 3 federal election.
He said in a statement on Monday night that a post-election briefing that he received from the Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy on May 4 warned of the "damaging" effects of trade war.
Chalmers said that the Labor government knows that Australia "will be faced with more global economic volatility and unpredictability over the next three years, not less."
"It's one of the reasons why Australians voted so emphatically for stability in uncertain times," he said.
Kennedy briefed Chalmers that Australia's strong economic fundamentals would not prevent the country from being affected and that global uncertainty could undermine investment, reduce household spending and weaken labor markets.
The treasurer said that managing global uncertainty is the "necessary precondition" for everything the second-term Labor government wants to do to strengthen the economy and make it more productive, competitive and dynamic.
Australia's "big four" banks have unanimously predicted that the monetary policy board of the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut interest rates at its next meeting on May 20.
Source: Xinhua
