Treasurer Jim Chalmers will seize on figures expected this week to show weak economic growth to attack critics of the federal budget who wanted spending to be slashed.
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the March quarter national accounts on Wednesday, which economists expect to show a weak result.
"It would have been badly wrong to slash and burn in the budget when the economy is already soft and people are still hurting," Mr Chalmers said on Sunday.
"It's why our balanced approach to fighting inflation without smashing the economy is bang-on, and why our political opponents and partisan critics are dead wrong."
Economists have not ruled out a contraction in Australia's gross domestic product.
Parts of the economy which have been sensitive to increased interest rates, including consumer spending and housing, have driven the economic slowdown.
Angus Taylor, the shadow treasurer, last week accused Mr Chalmers of being a weak economic manager, unprepared to cut government spending in a way that would beat inflation.
"It's not a budget that showed any fiscal discipline. Indeed, we saw $4 of spending for every extra dollar of savings. And in fact, over the next two years, we're going to see a 16 per cent increase in spending in just two years. That is not the way you beat inflation," Mr Taylor said on Wednesday.
![Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture by Keegan Carroll Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/cee7c915-ddac-4139-a3f3-de94fc70d970.jpg/r0_256_5000_3078_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The Australian economy expanded by a meagre 0.2 per cent through the final three months of 2023, which took annual growth to 1.5 per cent over the year.
Government spending and private business investment propped the Australian economy, the last national accounts figures, released in March, showed.
With interest rates still high enough to be slowing the economy and weighing on demand for goods and services, countering price pressures, economists anticipate another subdued outcome.
Some economists have said the low rate of growth over the final three months of 2023 cast doubt on the Reserve Bank's decision to increase the cash rate.
Household consumption, which represents around half of all economic activity in Australia, is expected to drag on the headline measure when it is released on Wednesday, a result of mortgage holders spending less while they grapple with larger repayments.
with AAP