Michael McLaren has called out Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers for trying to ignore record level government spending led to the RBA’s decision to raise the cash rate on Tuesday.

He points out while the RBA never explicitly stated government record level spending, leading economists agree government spending was included in the data the RBA looked at.

“The RBA statement from yesterday made it pretty clear that the situation in the Middle East was more akin to the straw that broke the camel’s back than the leading justification for their decision to raise the cash rate,” he said.

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