The Liberal-National coalition government, which has a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives (the lower house of parliament), will face re-election in 2016 but is likely to remain in power until 2019.
The government aims to return the budget to surplus in fiscal year 2017/18 (July-June). We broadly concur, but forecast that the budget will not return to surplus until 2019.
We forecast that after keeping interest rates steady since September 2013, the Reserve Bank of Australia (the central bank) will begin a tightening phase from early 2015, gradually increasing rates throughout the forecast period.

Highlights 7

Political outlook 8

Economic policy outlook 10

Economic forecast 11

Annual data and forecast 15

Quarterly data 16

Monthly data 17

Annual trends charts 18

Quarterly trends charts 19

Monthly trends charts 20

Comparative economic indicators 21

Basic data 22

Political structure 23

Politics 24

Economy 31

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