英语听力：澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2014-05-04

 Let's go to finance and the markets have been digesting the recommendations from the government commission of audit¹.

 

The chief economist² at HSBC Australia Paul Bloxham says it is important to get the budget back into surplus but the whole issue has to be kept in some perspective.

 

Australia's budget is not in crisis, we actually have fairly low levels of government debt relative to the rest of the world, I think government debt level is 12% of GDP, and that is at the low end amongst the OECD economies, and in fact, Australia actually has a fairly small government sector³ as a proportion of the overall economy, as well, we're at the bottom end,  there're only two other countries within the thirty OECD countries that have lower government spending than we do, so we need to keep it all in context, and that is, it is important that we put themselves back into a firmer footing for the budget in the medium term. But it's not an urgent task, and it's not something that's needs to be done really aggressively because we actually fare fairly well when you compare us to the rest of the world.

 

Paul Bloxham speaking there earlier on our program, let's take a quick look at the figures.

 

Now the Dows was, has finished the day's trade down slightly. The London's FTSE is almost up 0.5%. The Australian dollar is buying 92.7 US cents. Tapis Crude is at 114 US dollars a barrel. Gold, 1279 US dollars an ounce.

 

1 audit   

v.审计；查帐；核对；旁听

参考例句：

• Each year they audit our accounts and certify them as being true and fair.他们每年对我们进行账务审核，以确保其真实无误。
• As usual,the yearly audit will take place in December.跟往常一样，年度审计将在十二月份进行。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。