Jim Chalmers confident Australia will avoid recession despite warnings of more interest rate rises

Last week in its first meeting for the year, the Reserve Bank increased the cash rate for the ninth time in a row to 3.35% and warned it was considering even more interest rate rises in coming months.

But the treasurer told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday that said he still believed Australia would avoid a recession, although he acknowledged there were some “tricky” conditions.

“Well, that’s our expectation based on the government’s forecasts and the Reserve Bank’s forecasts,” he said.

“Both of those institutions expect us to avoid that scenario. But, clearly, we’ve got a combination of challenges in the economy right now and we expect our economy to slow considerably this year, both the Reserve Bank and the Treasury expect that to be the case.”

The government announced a $1.5bn energy price relief package in December in a bid to bring down power bills.

Chalmers said the latest data showed the intervention was working, with electricity prices forecast to rise 23%, down from the 30% forecast in October.

Read more at The Guardian