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GFC Is Over

TREASURY boss Ken Henry has declared the global financial crisis is over as Australia’s unemployment rate fell to an 11-month low.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed business was booming nationally and employing both full-time and part-time workers, with Australia’s jobless figure falling to 5.3 per cent from 5.5 per cent.

The decrease came as Dr Henry told a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday the worst of the downturn had passed.

“What people have called the global financial crisis, that has passed, I think it’s safe to say,” Dr Henry said. “But that isn’t to say that there will not be further adverse shocks for financial markets down the track and some of those shocks . . . could be of some significance for individual countries, but I don’t imagine (they would be) shocks of the sort that would be globally significant.”

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Despite the jump in job numbers Dr Henry said that there was “substantial spare capacity at this point” in the economy.

He said he did not expect the economy to confront capacity constraints until the jobless rate was up to a percentage point lower than it is now, The Australian reports.

Concerns emerged this week about rising job losses in the US and fears that Greece may default on its loans without a bailout package.

Tags: Australian Bureau Of Statistics, Bailout Package, Boss, Bureau Of Statistics, Capacity Constraints, Downturn, Dr Henry, Fears, Financial Markets, Full Time, Global Financial Crisis, Job Losses, Jobless Rate, Ken Henry, Part Time, Percentage Point, Shocks, Time Workers, Treasury, unemployment rate
Posted in Money