Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned that global economic uncertainty is expected to slow the Australian economy “considerably,” noting that the Chinese economy was displaying “some worrying signs.”
“I’m not going to pretend otherwise. There have been some developments out of China that we are monitoring incredibly closely,” Mr. Chalmers told the national broadcaster ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday morning.
“The global economy is [in] a pretty precarious place right now. Americans are proving to be resilient, the Chinese economy has shown some worrying signs, Europe’s in recession, and others as well.”
With the Australian economy expected to slow down, the Treasury is forecasting a moderation of inflation and an uptick in the unemployment rate.
“I’ve been upfront about that. The challenges in our economy are substantial—global and domestic,” Mr. Chalmers said.
“I think the slowdown in our economy is expected in those forecasts to be significant, and that will have implications for the unemployment rate.”
“We’ve got an incredibly resilient labour market. It’s one of the big strengths that we have going into this period of global economic uncertainty,” he said.
He added that there would be debate among economists about what full employment would look like in the current economy.
However, an extremely low unemployment rate can be unsustainable, the RBA says, as it drives inflation and wage growth.
“Our assessment is that, for the first time in decades, firms’ demand for labour exceeds the amount of labour that people are willing and able to supply. That is, employment is above what we would consider to be consistent with our inflation target,” Ms. Bullock said in June.
On Ms. Bullock’s appointment as new head of the RBA, Mr. Chalmers spoke highly of her qualities.
Australian Reliance on China Falling
A failing Chinese economy could have a significant impact on Australia, as China is its biggest trading partner.APSI senior fellow David Uren noted that most of the industries hit by Chinese sanctions, except the wine and lobster industries, were able to thrive in new markets. This illustrates the resilience of Australia’s economy on the chance that it is confronted with a loss of exports to China, analysts have noted.
Meanwhile, various economic figures illustrate China’s current rapid economic downturn, including a growing crisis in youth unemployment and diminishing export data, as well as admission of concern by high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials.
Chinese Economy Stuttering Under CCP
China’s official youth unemployment figure was 20.8 percent in May. However, this data does not include the Chinese youth who have completely withdrawn from the labour market and are not seeking employment—which is estimated to be about two-thirds of China’s 100 million young urban population.A professor from a private college in Guangzhou, who spoke to The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity for personal safety, said the official figures were likely fake and could be as high as 80 percent.
She said that only two of the 350 graduates in her department this year had found jobs.
Many students are also employed on paper but in reality don’t have work, she added.
Milton Ezrati, chief economist for the New York-based communications firm Vested, added that China’s youth unemployment issue is “self-inflicted.”
“At the same time as [Xi] talked about a knowledge economy and a service economy, he put great stress on effectively cornering the market in certain crucial industries, such as chip manufacturing and electric vehicles and batteries.”
Imports also fell nearly 7 percent, nearly double the rate of the expected 4 percent decline.
Lyu Daliang, a spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs, blamed China’s poor export performance on weaker global trade and investment and geopolitics, particularly with the United States.
