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PARIS: The head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has praised Australia's resilience in the global crisis but called for a Chilean-style "rainy day" fund to quarantine budget surpluses when the emerging resources boom heats up.
Angel Gurria likened Australia's economic performance to beating the star-studded Barcelona soccer team. "The arithmetic speaks for itself," the OECD secretary-general said, pointing to estimates that the economy grew by 1 per cent last year, compared with the rich-country average of minus 3.5 per cent.
But the OECD says budget and monetary policies will need to be tightened, as the economy is in a "strong recovery phase".
The organisation is warning the Rudd government to avoid a return to pre-crisis resources boom pressures, when excess budget spending forced the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates more than necessary.
Mr Gurria supported Australia's high immigration intake, saying this would provide the skilled workers needed to meet China's demand for mining and energy resources, but he cautioned that the resulting population growth would require considerable infrastructure and housing investment to avoid inflation bottlenecks.
The OECD has urged the government to strengthen its budget framework and is leaning towards recommending a Chilean-style resource stabilisation fund in its next report on Australia, expected later this year.
Chile has set up a fund to quarantine temporary tax surges generated by its copper deposits from overheating its economy and pushing up interest rates. The fund can then be used to support the economy during copper price downturns, such as occurred in the global financial crisis.
It would be an extension of
the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure, education and health funds announced by Wayne Swan in his first budget shortly before the global crisis hit and Labor's stimulus spending threw finances into deficit. It would aim to avoid the "pro-cyclical" fiscal policy that the OECD says put upward pressure on interest rates under the Howard government at the end of the pre-crisis resources boom.
"You have to plan your country's future based on a conservative scenario, even if you assume China will grow at a relatively fast pace," Mr Gurria said at the Paris headquarters of the OECD.
The OECD is leaning away from the option of a Norwegian-style resources fund, which uses revenue from offshore oil deposits to build a national nest egg for when the oil runs out.
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