Inside Anthony Albanese's front-row seat to the IMF's inflation warning
As the IMF's Kristalina Georgieva spoke to all of the leaders at the APEC summit, the Australian prime minister was listening more attentively than others.
On Saturday morning (local time) in Lima, Peru, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director Kristalina Georgieva told leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) that countries all over the world had done a “remarkable” job in lowering inflation while avoiding a recession. Yet Georgieva warned them that the public wasn’t congratulating them.
“This is a remarkable achievement and yet in many countries it is not reflected in public sentiment,” she said at the APEC leader's retreat. “Inflation may be falling but the higher prices people feel in their wallets are here to stay.”
The person in the room who was listening more attentively than others was Anthony Albanese, who has seen quarterly inflation in Australia go from 7.8% in 2022 to 2.8% now but is copping it from voters over the cost of living and the failure to lower interest rates.
Ahead of the next election due by May, the Australian prime minister is trying to work out how to avoid a backlash from voters that has seen incumbent governments being turfed out all over the world over the inflation crisis.
