Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed Australia will record its two largest-ever budget deficits in history as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. A temporary doubling of unemployment benefits and $1,500 a fortnight JobKeeper wage subsidies were unveiled in March as COVID-19 threatened to spark the worst economic downturn since the 1930s Great Depression. Before the onset of COVID-19, his Coalition government was re-elected promising to return the budget to surplus for the first time since 2007. As a proportion of gross domestic product, the upcoming budget deficits for this financial year, and the following one, would dwarf the size of Labor's ones during the Global Financial Crisis more than a decade ago. Pictured is a Centrelink queue at Abbotsford in MelbourneThe budget deficit for that financial year comprised 4.2 per cent of GDP.

Source: Daily Mail June 15, 2020 03:59 UTC