Federal Budget 2024: The major reason Aussies shouldn't just be asking 'what's in it for me?'

From the big-picture macroeconomic perspective, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has delivered a solid economic policy prescription. Some of the heat should be taken out of inflation, helping with household cost of living pressures whilst continuing the job of repairing the budget.

Rather than an assessment of “what’s in it for me”, an examination the overall economic effect of the budget is important. That's because the whole economic effect impacts all of us in terms of inflation, employment and financial stability.

This is where the range of measures to lower inflation and ease cost-of-living pressures are significant.

Find out how the 2024 Federal Budget will impact you by following Yahoo Finance’s coverage here.

Federal Budget Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese
The energy rebate and rent subsidy will lower inflation, with the treasury forecasting inflation to drop to 2.75 per cent by the end of 2024. · Source: Yahoo Finance Australia

A continuation of the electricity and rental rebates figure large in the cost of living debate.

The electricity rebate impacts every household and many small businesses. For consumers, its structure is progressive in that people on the lowest incomes, pensions, benefits or fixed incomes receive the same subsidy as a millionaire. This means that is it more helpful to low income earners than the rich.

In simple terms, when the electricity bill comes in through 2024-25, for every household the out of pocket costs will be lower.

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The rent subsidy is more targeted, as it provides a rebate for renters – not home owners or those still paying a mortgage.

These two policies will lower the consumer price index – inflation in other words.

This is the reason why the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) inflation forecast of just a week ago, for annual inflation to hit 3.8 per cent by the end of 2024, is out of date. This is not a criticism of the RBA – when its forecasts were prepared, it was unaware of the measures outlined in the budget.

Treasury, with full knowledge of all of the measures and policy changes in the budget, is forecasting inflation to drop to 2.75 per cent by the end of 2024, a rate that if delivered would slam the door shut on any speculation about interest rate hikes and open the door for interest rate cuts.

That said, it will be the bigger economic picture on economic growth, unemployment, wages and inflation that will sway the RBA on interest rate settings.

The two budget surpluses to date have seen a scaling back in the growth of government debt.

The budget is forecasting net government debt to hover around 18 to 22 per cent of GDP, well below the peak of 28.4 per cent of GDP in the pandemic year of 2020-21 but materially low on any international comparison.