The Australian Government recently released their economic and fiscal update, which shows the impact COVID-19 has had on the Australian economy.
In case you missed the details, here’s a run-down.
- The Government has acted swiftly providing economic support for workers, households and businesses – at a cost of around $289 billion
- More than 960,000 businesses and more than 3.5 million individuals have received JobKeeper
- More than $16 billion in payments have been made to the Boosting Cash Flow for Employers scheme
- Along with this, taxation receipts decreased $63.9 billion in 2020-21
- Payment variations have increased by $15.7 billion
- 709,000 jobs were lost and unemployment is forecast to peak at 9.25% in December
- GDP decreased 3.75%
All of this leaves the Government in deficit of $184.5 billion, compared to $85.8 billion in 2018-19.
Despite this, the Government has also recently announced further stimulus packages designed to keep the economy afloat, including:
- $2 billion for apprentices & JobTrainer
- $16bn to extend JobKeeper to March next year
- $3.8bn to extend the JobSeeker Supplement to December
If you want to know full details, visit https://budget.gov.au/