Anthony Albanese reveals the alarming reason why Aussies are poorer in 2024

The Prime Minister has explained why Australians are struggling so much in 2024, confirming a troubling statistic during a recent interview.

Prime Minister Albanese has cited the timing of inflationary pressures as the reasons Aussies are poorer than their counterparts around the world.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister appeared on ABC’s Insiders program and was quizzed by host David Speers on Australia’s dropping household disposable income figures, as compared to the United States, Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average.

Speers showed the PM a graph comparing household income in Australia to other countries and asked why our disposable income has continued to go down over the last few years.

“Other countries, Canada, the OECD average, they’re doing better than Australia with disposable income. Why is that?” Speers asked.

Anthony Albanese was interviewed by David Speers on ABC’s Insiders. Picture: Insiders/ABC

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Mr Albanese said the graph “tells you the story”.

“Inflation peaked higher and earlier overseas than it did [in Australia]. Interest rates were higher overseas, inflation was higher and it was earlier,” Mr Albanese said.

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia and Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia’s consumer price index (CPI) reached its peak in December 2022 at 7.8 per cent.

Canada reached a peak of 8.1 per cent in May 2022, while the United States hit 9.1 per cent in June 2022 according to federal agencies.

The consumer price index is a measure of inflation as experienced by consumers in their day-to-day living expenses and is a key standard of household inflation.

“The impact because of where we are in the supply chain occurred later here and hence why inflation, though that we inherited with a six in front of it when we came to office and rising, now has a two in front of it and is falling,” Mr Albanese said.

The interview followed Jim Chalmers’ confirmation on Sunday that Australia’s recession would loom into its seventh quarter. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

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The Prime Minister also cited his government’s “special increases” in key sectors as evidence of the government’s attempts at relief.

“Real wages are increasing, particularly in areas like childcare and aged care, where we’re provided for special increases. We have a rise as well in business investment. We have more small businesses than we’ve ever had before in Australia,” he said.

However, a TikTok that shared sections of the interview sparked a scathing reaction to Mr Albanese’s attempts to justify the exorbitant cost of living.

One commenter said: “He’s correct but his job is to do something about it, not use it as an excuse”, while another wrote that the “government needs to stop acting like inflation is some ghost that just exists”.

“His disposable income is high enough to buy a 4.3 million dollar house, he really doesn’t have any idea of how hard it is for the average Australian,” another said.

The Insiders interview comes as treasurer Jim Chalmers warned on Sunday that Australia’s economy will show “historically slow growth,” with Australia’s per capita recession set to stretch into its seventh consecutive quarter.