Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says he’s encouraged Australia remains one of the best performing economies in the world but there’s still no room for complacency.

In his latest economic update, Mr Swan used three reports - from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - to support the strategy the Rudd government had taken to deal with the global recession.

He took particular note of an IMF statement that budget deficits were appropriate in current circumstances.

“This is a big tick for our strategy,” he said.

“It was encouraging to see that government efforts to stimulate the economy are working to position Australia as one of the best performing economies in the developed world, but there is no room for complacency when Australian jobs are at risk.”

In a separate video message spruiking the government’s economic message, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the IMF and OECD released more upbeat Australian growth forecasts for 2009 last week.

“These reports confirmed the global financial crisis has plunged much of the world into a deep and long recession, but they also confirmed that Australia continues to weather the storm better than most other countries,” Mr Rudd said in the video released on Sunday.

He added Australia had the fastest growth, lowest debt and deficit levels, and second lowest unemployment of the advanced economies.

Mr Swan said confidence would be vital as Australia negotiated the economic turmoil over coming months.

“That’s why we welcome the results of the Sensis Consumer Report, which found that consumer confidence rose by 18 per cent in the three months to May, the largest quarterly rise on record,” he said.

But there were still signs of difficulty, with export earnings facing a big slump due to the unwinding of the commodities boom.

“Australian commodities data showed that earnings from Australia’s commodity exports are expected to fall by 18.1 per cent in 2009/10, stripping $35 billion out of the economy next financial year,” Mr Swan said.

“This will be driven by a sharp decline in minerals and energy export earnings, which are expected to fall by 22.4 per cent.”

AAP