Saturday 20th of April 2024
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navel science .....

robb's navel gaze .....

Opposition frontbencher Andrew Robb says the Treasury's latest economic figures have got "the smell of manipulation" about them because they differ from the Reserve Bank's. 

The Reserve Bank yesterday released figures which show it expects growth to slow to 1.5 per cent, compared to Treasury's prediction of 2 per cent.  

Mr Robb says it is "odd" that Treasury factored in a drop in interest rates to calculate their figures. 

"I think they were required to get a two in front of their growth forecasts so that the Prime Minister wasn't embarrassed and it's unfortunate that's the situation," he said. Treasurer Wayne Swan says there is no conflict in the difference between the figures.  

"They are broadly similar," he told Sky News. 

"There is a difference in terms of the Reserve Bank and the Treasury forecasts because the Treasury forecasts do take into account a loosening of monetary policy and for obvious reasons the Reserve Bank forecasts do not," he said. 

Treasury Accused Of Manipulating Forecasts

opposition's mischiefous accusations...

Treasury head Ken Henry denies the Government put any pressure on his department to manipulate its latest economic forecast.

Treasury has predicted growth for next year will be at 2 per cent, in contrast to the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) forecast of 1.5 per cent.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra today, Dr Henry also defended Treasury's unusual move of factoring the expectation of future interest rate cuts into the formulation of its growth figures.

The Opposition has accused the Government of pressuring Treasury to suit its political agenda but Dr Henry has told the National Press Club this has not happened.

"These forecasts are the Government's forecasts - that is the fact - but they are also the forecast of the Australian Treasury," he said.

"These forecasts were produced by the Treasury with no political manipulation, with no manipulation from the Government."

Dr Henry has described the Opposition's comments as "unhelpful" but says he has not been personally hurt by them.

no respect from the Daleks...

In Parliament the Government insisted Mr Turnbull pull his frontbenchers into line and apologise for what it said was an orchestrated campaign against one of the nation's highest public servants and financial regulators.

The Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner, said Mr Turnbull and his merchant banking ilk had no respect for regulators and it was showing.

"The sharks, the shonks and the spivs. They have taken over the Liberal Party," he said. "You are dealing with the party of spivs, the party that represents the fast-money brigade and they don't like people like regulators."

Dr Henry remained upbeat about the global financial crisis, saying while there was a chance of economic growth dipping into negative territory, it should stay positive. He said economic stimulus packages, "very low" unemployment, the low dollar, a large pipeline of investment projects and low oil prices in the engineering, construction and resources sectors "gives one reason to be confident that Australia can avoid a negative quarter of growth".