Brace Yourselves, Warns Costello

INVESTORS and home owners have received a rare, dire warning from the Treasurer to brace for the economic fallout from “world record oil prices”.

With underlying inflation high and apparently rising, Mr Costello told reporters yesterday that the country faced a “great” risk of repeating the economic mess that followed the 1970s oil shocks…

“Economic management is difficult; it is very difficult at the current time,” he said. “There is not much of a margin for error, I can assure you of that.”

Analysts said “management” was a euphemism for higher interest rates.

Mr Costello said the current oil price shock was greater than the two crises that crippled the economy in the 1970s.

SMH