Important reading for Year 12, and a useful start for Year 11 students

Understanding the issues that are affecting the economy is something all students must understand before the exams come around. This understanding is acquired slowly and built up over the course.

An essential source of unbiased information on how the Australian economy is doing is the RBA's Statement on Monetary Policy. This is issued every three months.

The statement gives a summary of what has been influencing the economy and provides forecasts on key variables such as inflation, growth and unemployment. The latest statement was issued on Friday.

In summary the statement says that growth is likely to be a little higher than was previously expected, inflation will be at the top end of the target range (2 to 3%) until the end of the year and that exporters are benefiting from the lower Aus$.

The Age article gives an excellent summary of the statement and is linked below. I have also linked to the RBA website page with the full statement. At this stage of the course working through the full statement after reading the Age's summary and get a feel for the issues and trends. You will then be able to build on this over the year (or two if you are in Year 11).

The Age article is here

The RBA statement is here