Opposition finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce is courting controversy again, warning that Australia is getting to the point where it will not be able to repay its overseas debt.
Senator Joyce says the Federal Government is borrowing billions of dollars from overseas to fund stimulus spending and programs like the National Broadband Network.
And he has questioned whether the Government is in a position to repay those loans.
"We're going into hock to our eyeballs to people overseas," he said.
"You've got to ask the question: how far into debt do you want to go? We are getting to a point where we can't repay it.
"Let's look at exactly what they're doing now and ask this very simple question: are you paying back your money, are you even meeting your interest component, and can you keep the debt stable?
I suspect this item should not have been published in the blog. There are enough bad news stories around that there's no need to include one as questionable as this.
ReplyDeleteAustralian employers added the most workers in more than three years in January, sending the currency surging on speculation the central bank will resume its record round of interest-rate increases.
ReplyDeleteThe number of people employed rose 52,700 from December, the fifth straight monthly gain, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. The median estimate of 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for 15,000 new positions. The jobless rate fell to 5.3 percent from 5.5 percent.
The longest run of hiring gains in almost two years increases pressure on Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens to resume raising borrowing costs in 2010, after he unexpectedly kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged last week. Policy makers kept the rate at 3.75 percent, saying information about the impact of three increases from October to December is still unclear.
“The jobs numbers will test the Reserve Bank’s patience about whether they will wait a month or two,” said David de Garis, a senior market economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Sydney. “We believe they will be inclined to wait rather than react to one set of numbers.”
The Australian dollar rose 1.2 percent to 88.60 U.S. cents as of 11:38 a.m. in Sydney from late yesterday.
The number of full-time jobs gained 15,900 January and part-time employment increased 36,900, today’s report showed.
Investors are betting there is a 100 percent chance of a quarter-point increase in the overnight cash rate target to 4 percent before the end of the second quarter, according to Bloomberg calculations based on interbank futures on the Sydney Futures Exchange. Chances of a quarter-point move at the central bank’s next meeting on March 2 stood at 46 percent at 11:40 a.m. in Sydney, up from 24 percent yesterday.