The Treasurer says he does not want to do anything that would make the Reserve Bank’s job harder or make life even more difficult for households.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has sought to dampen expectations of handouts in the coming budget in May, amid signs of a return to surplus, and says the cost of living measures must not further exacerbate inflation and interest rates.board meets on Tuesday
Jim Chalmers says inflation pressures are front of mind as he crafts cost-of-living relief measures for the budget.Speaking to the annual conference of the Chifley Research Centre in Canberra, the Treasurer noted how in his first budget delivered in October last year, the unexpected revenue burst was banked instead of spent.
Consequently, the government rejected calls for direct assistance to households of welfare benefit increases, and instead funnelled money into measures such as cheaper childcare.thanks to rising commodity prices, raising expectations that the May 10 budget will deliver a surplus, Dr Chalmers warned that a similar discipline of restraint must apply.
“You need to show some restraint, and we’ve got this inflation challenge and that’s what we’re doing and what we have done,” he said.
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