“The range of forecasts that where regularly produced by the government (Treasury) and the RBA up until very recently were unambiguously optimistic.
The forecasts ignored all hard data on the economy, which suggests it may have been a political strategy to remain upbeat, rather than it being a clumsy forecasting error.
This has created a problem not just because the forecasts were embarrassingly wrong, but they led to policy errors which are now seeing a sharp rise in unemployment and an extension of the economic slump.
There is clear economic pain in Australia as a result.”
