Senator Birmingham said the trade war was bad news for everyone and having a negative impact on world economic growth, with global trade slipping to its lowest level since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

Asked on ABC television's Insiders program on Sunday if he was confident the trade dispute would be resolved by Christmas, Senator Birmingham said: "I wouldn't seek to make predictions."

"I have seen enough twists on turns in this already, and we live in very uncertain times," he said.

However, the cabinet minister disagreed with former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd that Australia could face a recession if the US and China don't reach an agreement.

"I don't think we should talk ourselves down. Our economy has shown great resilience through a period of 28 years of continuous economic growth and I believe we will continue to show resilience," he said.

The government has worked hard to bring the budget back to towards balance, to put record numbers of Australians in jobs and cut taxes for families.

"They are the types of things that can keep the economy sound through a very rocky global time," Senator Birmingham said.

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe believes the dispute between the US and China poses a significant risk to the global economy.

But he also told the House of Representatives economics committee during his six-monthly hearing on Friday the central bank had lowered its growth forecast again for this year, mainly due to weak consumption growth.

"It has become increasingly clear that the extended period of unusually slow growth in household incomes has been weighing on household spending, as has the adjustment in the housing market," Dr Lowe said.

"Given this experience, the outlook for consumption continues to be the main domestic source of forecast uncertainty."

Figures due on Wednesday are again expected to show little improvement on the wage growth front.

Economists expect the wage price index - the RBA and Treasury's preferred measure for wages growth - to show an increase of 0.5 per cent for the June quarter.

That would leave the annual rate at 2.2 per cent for the 2018/19 year and even softer than the 2.3 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.

Dr Lowe expects only modest wage growth over the next couple of years, due to slack in the labour market.

In contrast, Treasury predicted at the time of the April 2 budget that wage growth would accelerate to 2.75 this financial year, and to 3.5 per cent by 2021/22.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher said the Morrison government should update its economic forecasts now rather than wait until the end of the year when the mid-year budget update is due.

Australian Associated Press