国际英语新闻:Australian gov't signals lower economic growth rate

CANBERRA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Australian federal government on Sunday signaled its mid-year budget review will reveal a lower- than-estimated growth rate for the Australian economy.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan and Federal Finance Minister Penny Wong on Sunday said it is obvious that global instability will have an impact on the federal budget.

"While the turbulence in the global economy makes our task harder, we're determined to bring the budget back to surplus in 2012/13 as planned," the treasurer said in his weekly economic note on Sunday.

"Sticking to our strict fiscal strategy is absolutely critical at a time when global financial markets are punishing those without discipline."

He added that the government's fiscal discipline had created space for the local economy to grow and helped give the Reserve Bank the room to cut interest rates.

The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to cut interest rate for 0.25 percent in November, and has scaled back its prediction for growth to 3.25 percent in 2011/12, 0.85 percent lower than its August forecast, warning that the local economy may be dragged down by Europe's sovereign debt crisis.