Quick recovery could reduce Government bailout spend

The JobKeeper and JobSeeker schemes, originally budgeted to cost $130 billion with the expectation that 6 million people would require the support could fall in under budget as the Federal Government anticipates a quicker economic recovery.

“When we costed this measure, it was based on 6 million Australians being picked up by JobKeeper. We’re still a long way, I think, from knowing the full extent of all these costs.” said Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Last week the Prime Minister alluded to lifting restrictions earlier than anticipated due to the country getting the virus under control quickly which will lessen government spending and partially offset the economic downtown.

In June, the Government will release updates on the impact of both schemes and other programmes along with an economic statement with the expectation to forecast key indicators including the magnitude of the debt and the size of the deficit.

This is a brief summary of the article ‘Budget impact may be lessened by quicker recovery’ by Phillip Coorey | The Australia Financial Review | Tuesday 28^th April 2020.