Laura Berger-Thomson is a macroeconomist who has spent her career working in public policy. Laura is currently the Principal Advisor (Forecasting) at the Treasury and is responsible for Treasury’s macroeconomic forecasts. She helps lead a team of around 30 people to analyse trends in the Australian and global economies and to assess the macroeconomic impacts of various policies.

Laura spent most of her career at the Reserve Bank of Australia and has worked in a broad range of roles analysing the domestic economy, international economies and financial markets. She has extensive experience leading teams of economists within a public sector organisation and commissioning research into relevant economic questions. Her own research has involved both time series and microdata analysis and she has published research on topics including housing markets, marginal propensities to consume and foreign exchange hedging.

Laura strongly believes in the value of economic analysis in informing good policy decisions. Reflecting this, she is passionate about training the next generation of public sector economists. She believes training is an integral part of her leadership roles, and she has also participated in a number of mentoring programs. Laura has a keen interest in equity and diversity issues, having been a founding member of the Employee Resource Group for flexible work at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

 Laura has represented the Reserve Bank on a number of external committees relating to the collection and use of data and is currently a CEDA Trustee.

 Laura has a Masters in Public Financial Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. She has three young children.