WHILE it is being predicted by many the world economy will go into recession, maybe as early as 2023, Premier Mark McGowan said he was "hopeful and confident" WA would be able to avoid an economic downturn.
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"The interest rate environment which is climbing significantly and the hangover of COVID, in particular the enormous expenditure by many governments around the world that will have to be paid for, means that there is a strong prospect major economies around the world will go into recession," Mr McGowan said.
He was speaking last week when announcing South West Region MP Jackie Jarvis as the new Agriculture and Food Minister, replacing Alannah MacTiernan who has retired.
"In the case of WA I am hopeful and confident that we will avoid it, as we have the COVID recession other States went through - but I'm not positive that will occur."
Mr McGowan (pictured) said the State government's expectation for 2023 was that WA's economic performance would stay roughly similar to that of this year.
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"But you have to be cautious and be careful about these things and that's why we are careful with our public finances, so we can manage whatever comes down the track at us," he said.
Fortunate to have a booming mining sector, with WA's iron ore shipments to China still providing much-needed support to the State's revenue streams, as well as its agricultural export industry - these are two big reasons to be cautiously optimistic that WA could remain protected from any significant economic declines that could occur globally.
