The SMH reports that Australia, one of only 12 countries with an AAA credit rating, risks a ratings downgrade for the first time since 1989, United States investment bank Goldman Sachs has warned, saying the country could be hit with a “negative outlook” within months.

Goldman Sachs made the assessment in a research note released on Wednesday afternoon, saying that credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s could make the decision due to Australia’s “poor fiscal performance”.

Australia’s public debt burden “remains favourable”, the bank said. However, plummeting commodity prices, falling terms of trade, weak economic growth and political impasse had stripped $283 billion out of the budget over forward estimates in the past 30 months, with a further $55 billion deterioration likely in the May budget.

Socialism and Keynesian economics finds another victim and Australia burns while Labor and The Coalition fiddle.