As job losses, inflation and weak growth impact many economies, Australia advances apace, asAlan Austinreports.

AMONG THE LATEST global institutions to commend prime managerAnthony Albaneseand his chief accountantJim Chalmersare the International Monetary Fund (IMF),Knight Frankand Standard & Poors (S&P).

International property consultants Knight Frank released its 20th annual wealthreportlast Thursday and singled out Australia for special mention. After years of sluggishgrowthin wealth and income, prosperity is now increasing steadily.

Surge in personal wealth

Australians with wealth above $30 million are forecast to increase by almost 60% over the next five years, to a total of 26,095 nearly one in every 1,000 residents.

Australias booming affluence, according to Knight Frank:

Those engines have created a depth of wealth that now outstrips most comparable economies, with the billionaire population forecast to grow by a staggering 77% between 2026 and 2031. That increase in billionaires, if it eventuates, will be the worlds fourth-highest. The top three are Saudi Arabia, Poland and Sweden.

The national broadcaster is failing the nation badly by misreporting Australias economy.

The report concludes:

Also important in wealth creation, of course, is the distribution of that largesse across all percentiles. Knight Frank offers no data on this, but the annual UBSGlobal Wealth Reportdoes. Due mid-year, we await that with interest.

City house price rises moderating

A valuable section in Knight Franks report is its annual PIRI 100 the prime international residential index which ranks the world's richest cities by rate of increase in property values.

Last weeks update showed Sydney has fallen fromranking30th in the world in 2018 to 78th in 2026. This does not mean values have declined, just that the rate of increase has moderated. This is most encouraging.

Brisbane is down from 31st to 54th. Melbourne has tumbled from 41st to 84th, and the Gold Coast has slipped from equal 42nd to 48th. Perth, in contrast, has risen from equal 42nd to 37th.

IMF confirms Australias ascendancy

Treasurer Chalmers was keen to highlight the positive data in this months biennialFiscal Monitorfrom the International Monetary Fund. Well, he might, given the refusal of most Australian newsrooms to report anything which might drag consumer and business confidence out of the cellar.

Headed Australia now top three in G20 budget rankings, the Treasurers media releaseclaimedthat the IMF shows Australia has surged up global rankings for best budget management to have one of the three strongest budget balances in the G20, up from 14th under our predecessors.

The 2025 fourth quarter results confirm Australias economy is again among the worlds best.

A note on country comparisons

Those observations are accurate and quite valid, given Australia is a member of theG20. That contrasts with the previous hapless Coalition governments, which made deceptivecomparisonswith theG7, of which Australia was not a member.

This column, however, prefersOECDmembers for comparisons, as these are 38 developed countries with mixed capitalist economies and mostly liberal democracies. The G20 is a smaller group which includes developing nations Indonesia, India and South Africa, and single-party states Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. We will also focus on past and present results rather than speculative forecasts.

With any grouping, however, results are far more positive today than at any time since theRudd/Gillardyears.

Key IMF findings for 2026

The Fiscal Monitors principal listing comprises 30 highly advanced OECD members with which comparisons are instructive. It excludes developing countries Costa Rica, Colombia and others, and the USA, for which reliable data has been unavailable since the Trump Administrationreplacedits professional statisticians with lackeys.

Growth in Australias GDP is projected to be 2% this year, ranking equal seventh among those 30 economies. Thats up from 21st in 2019 and 22nd in 2021.

On overall budget balance, Australia ranks 13th, up from 30th in 2019 dead last!

This has been achieved by stronger government revenue and controlled spending. Australias spending is 39.1% of GDP, well below the OECD average of 45.4%, thus undercutting mendacious newsroom claims that Labor is a spendthrift administration.

Ranking this year is fifth in this group of 30, up from ninth in 2019. See chart below.

(Data source:IMF)

Australias gross debt to GDP ranks 12th in this group, up from 14th from 2020 to 2022, having snuck ahead of New Zealand and South Korea.

Credit ratings news

In a positive signal from ratings agency S&P, Australias composite purchasing managers' index (PMI)jumpedfrom 46.6 in March to 50.1 in April. The PMI measures the performance of the private sector each month by combining data from both manufacturing and service industries.

According toTrading Economics, export orders continued to grow, but only modestly, helped by sales to North America, Asia and New Zealand. Employment growth picked up, allowing companies to reduce backlogs.

Relentless negative press

Meanwhile, the mainstream newsrooms continue to ignore most positive outcomes. Recent alarmist headlines, most with highly misleading content, include:

• Economic nightmare just weeks away (The West Australian, 20 April 2026);

• Australias inflation time bomb: why the worst is yet to come (AFR, 23 April 2026);

• Aussies face weeks of tough economic news (Herald Sun, 25 April 2026);

• We wont last six months: Aussie trucking industry faces wipe out (Courier Mail, 15 April 2026); and

• 'Complacent market drifts lower as economic outlook sours (ABC News, 17 April 2026)

Thats Australia. Rich in talent, enterprise, capital, resources, property and overall wealth. Extremely poor in news and data analysis.

Alan Austinis an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him@alanaustin001and [email protected].

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