The Treasurer Wayne Swan now accepts that the Australian economy is in for a very rough time.

That means that you are, too.

In a statement issued early today, Mr Swan noted that the International Monetary Fund has, once  again, downgraded its forecast of global economic growth.

“The IMF is now forecasting that the global recession will be much deeper and more protracted than previously envisaged,” he said.

The news was, indeed, very bad.

The IMF now expects global growth this year to be just o.5 per cent.

And, what’s worse, it is predicting that  advanced economies will contract by 2 per cent, collectively, in that time.

The IMF is now forecasting, also, that China’s growth will be just 6.7 per cent this year.  That’s half the growth China recorded in 2007.

“It is inevitable that Australian jobs and growth will be affected,” Mr Swan said.

The Treasurer said the Rudd government had taken decisive action to protect Australians from the worst impacts of the downturn and would continue to do so.

Perhaps oddly, though, the IMF’s widely expected predictions had little impact on Wall Street, where share prices surged in early trading.

That surge was based on rumours that the Obama administration will set up a bad bank, to buy the toxic debt that is clogging the books of America’s commercial banks.

The Dow Jones index was still almost 167 points up, shortly before 3pm, New York time, even though the rally had eased by then.