It was enough to generate more than 2½ million new payroll jobs last year and to cause the unemployment rate to edge down to 5¼ percent -- a figure roughly matching the low of the last cyclical upswing, in the late 1980s.
The situation is still affected by the unknowns regarding the implementation of, and possible alternatives to, the increases in indirect taxation provided for by the safeguard clauses in 2021 and 2022 (equal to 1.1 and 1.4 per cent of GDP respectively) and by ongoing concerns about certain trends in our current expenditure.