Something very strange is happening in shopping centres and department stores across Australia right now – and it is bad news for all of us.
Have you been to the shops yet? This Christmas, the mall near me seems a bit empty. That makes me nervous. Because Australia needs a really big Christmas to keep the economy going into 2020.
But it’s not just the money in their pockets, it flows through to logistics and utilities and real estate and many other industries. Christmas spending is where many companies make the money that employs the rest of us for the rest of the year. Australia’s saving rate has shot up as the next graph shows. We almost finally looked to be getting back to pre-GFC levels, but then there was a big reversal.Our sudden saving was revealed in the most recent national accounts data. The government doled out extra tax cuts, but we decided not to spend them. When the future looks bleak and murky, who can blame us? The problem is this thrift – individually virtuous – creates a vicious cycle when we all do it at the same time.
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