AUSTRALIA will cut the growth outlook for most major economies, including key trading partner China, when it releases its budget next month, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

“Events in the Middle East are casting a shadow over the global economy, compounding the concerns about lingering inflation and weaker growth,” Chalmers said in a statement on Sunday (Apr 21). Uncertainty about the global outlook were “central” to talks the treasurer held with international counterparts and central bank chiefs in Washington in recent days, where he attended meetings of the G20 finance ministers, the IMF and World Bank, he said.

Australia’s treasury department forecasts GDP for China, India, Japan, the UK and the US in their budget updates. China’s economic expansion is likely to be around 4 per cent this year, and in 2025 and 2026 – the weakest period of growth since the nation started to open its economy in the late 1970s, Chalmers said.

Japan’s forecast 2024 growth was lowered by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.75 per cent following weaker-than-expected consumption figures, the statement said. Japanese household spending fell 0.5 per cent in February, sliding for a 12th consecutive month, recent data showed.

Chalmers last week said Australia is on track for a second consecutive surplus when he hands down the budget in just less than four weeks’ time. BLOOMBERG