{"id":12967,"date":"2021-09-15T09:26:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T09:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=12967"},"modified":"2021-09-15T09:26:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T09:26:07","slug":"oecd-reaffirms-australias-economic-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/09\/15\/oecd-reaffirms-australias-economic-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"OECD reaffirms Australia\u2019s economic resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Morrison Government welcomes the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development\u2019s (OECD)\u00a0Economic Survey<\/i>\u00a0of Australia<\/i>, which commends the Government\u2019s \u201cstrong economic response to the pandemic\u201d.
\nIn its first\u00a0Survey\u00a0<\/i>since December 2018, the OECD\u2019s latest survey focuses on the Government\u2019s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of the financial sector both during the pandemic and into the future in supporting the recovery.
\nPolicy response to COVID-19<\/strong>
\nThe OECD survey highlights the Government\u2019s \u201cwell-coordinated\u201d response since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, acknowledging that \u201cmacroeconomic policy support was delivered swiftly and with appropriate force at the onset of the pandemic\u201d and \u201cplayed a particularly important role in stabilising the economy and the living standards of the population\u201d. The \u201ccore component\u201d of the fiscal response was JobKeeper, which the OECD acknowledges \u201csaved at least 700,000 jobs\u201d.
\nThe Government\u2019s fiscal response was enabled by Australia having \u201centered the pandemic in a strong fiscal position\u201d as \u201cthe federal Budget had returned to balance in Financial Year 2018\/19\u201d.
\nThe Survey also acknowledges the large number of temporary regulatory measures put in place by the Government, including insolvency protections and supporting loan deferrals, to effectively \u201cbuffer against the economic shock\u201d.
\nThe strong economic management of the pandemic has meant that Australia\u2019s \u201cdownturn in 2020 was less significant than in the majority of other OECD countries\u201d and ensured \u201cthe economy bounced back rapidly\u201d.
\nEncouragingly, the\u00a0Survey\u00a0<\/i>notes a \u201csubstantial quickening in the pace of the vaccine rollout\u201d and that \u201conce the economy reopens, household consumption could also pick up surprisingly rapidly given a high stock of excess savings\u201d.
\nThe OECD anticipates that the economy will see solid growth of 4 per cent in 2021 and 3.3 per cent in 2022, highlighting the resilience of the Australian economy despite the current headwinds posed by the delta variant and ongoing lockdowns.
\nWith more than 43 per cent of Australians fully vaccinated, progress towards our nationally agreed targets of 70 to 80 per cent is accelerating. As the Survey notes, once we reach these targets, \u201cthe reopening of international borders will support the economic recovery through enabling foreign student arrivals, bilateral tourism and population growth stemming from net immigration\u201d.
\nProgress on Survey recommendations<\/strong>
\nThe Morrison Government has made strong progress on the OECD\u2019s key\u00a0Survey\u00a0<\/i>recommendations.
\nSpecifically, fiscal policy continues to be responsive to developments in economic conditions. More than $6.6 billion in COVID-19 Disaster Payments has been provided to 2 million Australians and significant business support continues to be provided in partnership with the States and Territories.
\nThe\u00a0Survey<\/i>\u00a0also recognises the significant tax relief provided to low and middle income earners through the Morrison Government’s\u00a0Personal Income Tax Plan<\/i>.
\nThe report also notes that bracket creep, if unaddressed, will result in increasing average taxes over time. This further underlines the importance of the structural reform implemented through the Government\u2019s Stage 3 tax cuts which will remove an entire tax bracket and ensure that 95 per cent of taxpayers face a marginal tax rate of no more than 30 cents in the dollar.
\nThe OECD commends the Government for its significant progress on previous OECD recommendations such as better targeting of the Research and Development Tax Incentive and introducing a \u2018Patent Box\u2019 to drive innovation and productivity.
\nThe OECD also recognises the importance of the Government\u2019s legislated automatic mutual recognition reforms and encourages remaining jurisdictions to follow the Commonwealth’s lead to support Australian workers and boost productivity growth.
\nWith respect to climate change, the Government remains committed to its approach of technology, not taxes, in reaching net zero emissions as soon as we possibly can, preferably by 2050. The\u00a0Survey\u00a0<\/i>acknowledges that \u201cstrong institutions are already in place to support these aims\u201d.
\nRole of the financial sector<\/strong>
\nThe Survey also noted that as a result of key reforms introduced by the Government over several years, \u201cthe strength of the Australian financial system allowed it to support the economy during the crisis\u201d.
\nImportantly, as highlighted by the OECD, to further support the recovery the Government will continue to pursue reforms to ensure small and emerging businesses have access to a range of funding sources, including streamlining lending laws, expanding \u2018Open Banking\u2019 and via the Australian Business Growth Fund.
\nThe latest OECD Economic Survey confirms the Government\u2019s economic plan is working and that the fundamentals of the Australian economy remain strong.
\nThe Morrison Government will continue to support the recovery so that the Australian economy can bounce back once COVID-19 related restrictions are eased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Morrison Government welcomes the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development\u2019s (OECD)\u00a0Economic Survey\u00a0of Australia, which commends the Government\u2019s \u201cstrong economic response to the pandemic\u201d. In its first\u00a0Survey\u00a0since December 2018, the OECD\u2019s latest survey focuses on the Government\u2019s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of the financial sector both during the pandemic and into … Continue reading “OECD reaffirms Australia\u2019s economic resilience”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}