22.05.2013 - Australia: Treasury 'surprised' by commodities slump
Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson concedes his department has struggled to keep pace with a ‘‘tumultuous’’ decade for the Australian economy. Addressing an economists’ lunch in Sydney, Dr Parkinson said the difficulty Treasury and other economic forecasters had had was predicting the path of global commodity prices, the exchange rate and capital gains. ‘‘While our forecasts for the real economy have held up reasonably well, the same can’t be said of our price forecasts,’’ he told Australian Business Economists. Dr Parkinson said Treasury’s forecasts for employment and wages had been relatively accurate, which meant that for income tax, the largest source of government revenue, they had changed little since last year’s budget...................................Full Article: Source
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