In an article published in The Conversation, Professor Michelle Grattan (2024) made a few observations regarding the challenges facing Jim Chalmers ahead of the next federal budget: Ordinary people didn't need the national accounts to tell them how things are in the Australian economy. Many know it through their own experience. They've responded, as the national accounts show, by cutting back on discretionary spending - for instance, by going to restaurants less. Chalmers and his advisers had been holding their breath early this week, fearing the figures might show growth going negative, which could have been the first leg of a technical recession ... The growth figure came in at 0.2% for the quarter. Annually, it was 1.5% in the 12 months to December. That's the lowest for more than two decades, leaving out the COVID period. In light of minuscule growth and (on the upside) subsiding inflation ... Chalmers told his news conference: "Addressing inflation is still our primary concern, but these numbers show that the balance of risks in our economy are shifting from inflation to growth