Gillard Seeks Australia Budget Surplus to Halt Poll Slide
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Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard plans to end four years of deficits in her government’s annual budget today, seeking to reverse a slide in opinion polls and strengthen its economic credentials.
The governing Labor party, which trails the opposition by 18 percentage points in the latest survey, says a return to surplus will give the central bank room to lower borrowing costs in a nation where almost 90 percent of mortgages have variable rates. Economists predict Australia’s unemployment rate last month rose to a seven-month high of 5.3 percent, according to the median forecast ahead of a report due May 10.