AUST. ECONOMY “Minor Restraints Sufficient”

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32019, 20 June 1969, Page 20

AUST. ECONOMY “Minor Restraints Sufficient”

Any tendency toward boom conditions in the Australian economy may already have bteen checked, the Commercial Bank of Australia, Ltd, says in its latest Economic Review.

The bank emphasises that if more restraints are in fact needed, the problem of

selecting the best “tool” would be difficult. “Despite indication that the economy has reached a level where resources are near fully-employed,” the bank says, “it may not be necessary to impose anything but minor restraint, particularly on the private sector.” The C.B.A. argues that the high rate of growth of gross national product in 1968-69 over the previous year “has been largely the result of a favourable rural year compared with drought-stricken 1967-68. “Furthermore, the growth has taken place with an increase of only about 3 per cent in prices, and with a large increase in overseas reserves. “Admittedly the latter has been achieved during a year of high capital inflow,” the bank says, “but there has also been a healthy rise in exports and only a modest increase in imports.” |