Anthony Albanese remains confident Australia will be able to avoid a recession, despite economic headwinds.
In the wake of rising inflation levels and increasing interest rates, the prime minister said the country would still be able to avoid downturns.
“I’m very confident that the Australian economy can continue to grow, which means we won’t be in that circumstance,” Mr Albanese told ABC Radio on Monday, when asked about a recession.
“Part of that is about confidence in the economy. One of the things that’s driving higher inflation, of course, is higher demand as well.”
The comments come as inflation has risen to some of its highest levels in two decades, while the Reserve Bank recently increased official interest rates by the largest amount in a single month since 2000.
Despite the economic circumstances Labor has come into since winning government last month, Mr Albanese said he was still hopeful for what was ahead.
“I’m optimistic about Australia’s future,” he said.
“We are positioned as well, in a number of ways, with incredible opportunity, not the least of which is we’re in the fastest growing region of the world in human history, we have an opportunity to be a renewable energy superpower.”
Off the back of the Fair Work Commission determining a 5.2 per cent increase in the minimum wage, the prime minister said there was no evidence of a wage price spiral developing.
“If you’re one of the poorest paid workers in Australia, you shouldn’t have a real wage cut, and good on (the Fair Work Commission) for doing so,” Mr Albanese said.
“We have some major challenges ahead of us, but that’s because we had a government stuck in neutral with 22 energy policies, none of them delivered, with no economic plan going forward.”
