Treasurer Jim Chalmers is planning bigger budget deficits over the next four years than forecast six months ago, as a $25 billion tax windfall fails to cover a large jump in Albanese government spending.
The admission from the treasurer means that next week’s budget will be expansionary, not contractionary as some economists have called for, and will do less to contain inflation and interest rate pressures than his previous surplus budgets.
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John Kehoe is economics editor at Parliament House, Canberra. He writes on economics, politics and business. John was Washington correspondent covering Donald Trump’s first election. He joined the Financial Review in 2008 from Treasury. Connect with John on Twitter. Email John at jkehoe@afr.com