Australia is officially in its first recession for almost three decades, with the June quarter GDP numbers showing the economy went backwards by 7 per cent, the worst fall on record and a second straight contraction.
Australia is officially in its first recession for almost three decades, with the June quarter GDP numbers showing the economy went backwards by 7 per cent, the worst fall on record.GDP plunged 7 per cent in the June quarter, more than three times the previous biggest fall of 2 per cent in 1974With fewer places to spend money the household saving rate jumped from 6 to 19.8 per cent
It is the first time this has happened since 1991, although the scale of the downturn is vastly greater than "the recession we had to have", where the economy shrank 1.3 and 0.1 per cent. Private demand took 7.9 percentage points off the economy, while a trade surplus and increased government spending added back 1 and 0.6 percentage points respectively.
With fewer ways to spend money available, and amid financial concerns from the pandemic, households were saving around $20 for every $100 they earned, a big increase from $6 at the start of the year.
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