Page 2204 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 2 August 2022
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and having the right services and infrastructure in place for the territory’s
growing population.
In the coming years, jobs and skills demand will be highest in the health and care economy, in IT, in advanced manufacturing, in education and training, and in professional services.
This budget invests in those jobs by directly hiring and investing in skills development and partnerships with industry and with our education providers.
Sustainable economic growth
Through sensible economic management the ACT has avoided a recession during the pandemic—the only state or territory to achieve that. Given the negative impacts elsewhere, it is worth noting that, since the pandemic commenced, ACT state final demand has grown by five per cent.
When the national accounts are released later this year, we expect them to show that we have had 32 consecutive years of economic growth in the Territory—continuing to grow through a once-in-a-century pandemic, the global financial crisis, the tech-wreck recession, the election of the Public Service-cutting Abbott and Howard governments, and even recording positive growth in the 1991-92 recession.
Looking forward, we expect growth in our gross state product to remain robust over the next four years, rising at around three per cent per annum in real terms across the forward estimates. That is an incredible economic growth story over more than three decades.
But we recognise that we face economic challenges, particularly in the short-term, with a softening of the national economic outlook as both consumer confidence and business confidence are impacted by the short-term inflation spike and the lifting of the cash rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia, and there was an increase of a further 50 basis points announced this afternoon.
Additionally, there is ongoing uncertainty from the pandemic and continuing shocks from recent geopolitical events.
We expect these to be short-term economic headwinds, though. Government emergency support will step down as confidence improves, allowing private consumption and investment to make an increasing contribution to growth. We will, of course, throughout this continue to support the most vulnerable members of our community.
We understand that for our lowest income households the short-term inflationary pressures will make life hard, which is why we are providing an $800 concession on energy bills for over 31,000 low-income households through this budget.
We are also investing in our labour market, which will ultimately drive up real wages, which will support improved living standards through 2023 and beyond.
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