Australia releases pre-election economic outlook

Australian Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO), an independent assessment of the current state of the budget and the economy, has been released by the Departments of Treasury and Finance on Tuesday.

The Australian government's economic statement released on August 2 by Treasurer Chris Bowen forecasted a 33 billion AU dollars (almost 30.28 billion U.S. dollars) deterioration in budget revenue over the four years to 2016/17. And according to this PEFO, the federal budget deficit to be 30.1 billion AU dollars (almost 27.62 billion U.S. dollars) in 2013/14.

The PEFO forecasts growth of 2.5 percent, the same as Labor's updated economic statement on August 2. It also predicts the same unemployment rate of 6.25 percent. And inflation is expected to remain contained at 2.5 percent in 2013/14 and two percent in 2014/15.

And it predicts a slightly larger surplus of 4.2 billion AU dollars (almost 3.85 billion US dollars) in 2016/17 compared to Labor's 4 billion AU dollars (almost 3.67 billion US dollars) forecast in the economic statement.

According to the analysis of local media, sustained low interest rates and a lower Australian dollar exchange rate are expected to underpin a return to around trend growth in 2014/15.

An analysis of local media also said on Tuesday that the Labor is expected to use the PEFO figures to increase pressure on the Opposition to release its budget costings.