STORY: Multilateralism needed to address uncertainty in world economy: Australian economist
DATELINE: July 16, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:39
LOCATION: Canberra
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): PETER DRYSDALE, Head of East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and East Asia Forum at Australian National University
2. various of Australia and China
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): PETER DRYSDALE, Head of East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and East Asia Forum at Australian National University
4. various of Australia and China

STORYLINE:

An Australian economist has said that an agenda truly multilateral in its purpose is needed as the world economy is facing a period of "considerable uncertainty."

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): PETER DRYSDALE, Head of East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and East Asia Forum at Australian National University
"The world economy is facing a period of considerable uncertainty, so there are a number of big problems that we have to solve. First of all, most of the advanced countries are suffering significant inflation and monetary authorities are tightening monetary policy to address the inflation problem. But there are some fundamental problems in the longer term that we have to work through in order to ensure that we don't have a period of significant slow growth over a longer period of time. Importantly, the uncertainty that's associated with the decoupling and fragmentation in the international economy puts breaks upon the huge potential of the transformation that we have to make in order to decarbonize the global economy. And it makes the investment environment and the trade environment uncertain and affecting that transformation. So in the longer term, the world economy faces potentially a period of slower growth if we don't address those problems actively."

Drysdale said the potentials are there for both China's economy and the bilateral cooperation between China and Australia.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): PETER DRYSDALE, Head of East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and East Asia Forum at Australian National University
"We in Australia have a lot of stake with China in the realization of that potential. In particular, we're two very complementary economies in which there's a huge resource trade and energy trade relationship between us that serves, for example, the bulk of China's iron steel industry. In the next 20, 30 years, we're going to have to transform that trade completely and that industry completely and develop a whole new set of trades between Australia and China. There's a potential for growth and productivity associated with that growth in China, feeding into our economy, into economies around the region, around the world. So the potential is there. All we're going to do is work together to build the confidence and get the policy settings right to ensure that potential is realized."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Canberra.
(XHTV)