CANBERRA, Apr 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Australia’s Treasurer will provide an unprecedented update, on the impact of COVID-19 on the budget, on May 12.
Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann, on Monday night, announced that they will use the first day of Parliament’s return, to deliver a ministerial statement, outlining how the government’s economic response to COVID-19 has affected the nation’s economy.
Frydenberg was due to announce the Federal Budget for financial year 2020/21 in May, but last month the government took a decision to release the Budget on Oct 6, 2020.
The statement will be the first official insight into the state of the economy and budget, since Dec’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, (MYEFO).
Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, Frydenberg and Cormann previously promised to deliver a budget surplus 2019/20, which would have been the first since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). But the government abandoned that plan on account of the pandemic and the summer bush-fires according to local media.
“The near-term outlook depends critically on this ongoing success and our ability to gradually ease restrictions, so people can return to work,” Frydenberg and Cormann said, in a statement on Monday night.
“It is reasonable to expect that the pace and scope of any easing in containment measures will become more clear, in the period ahead, while economic data on the current state of the economy will become more readily available.”– NNN-AGENCIES
