The Treasurer is today expected to announce Australia has entered its first recession in almost three decades with an expected six per cent contraction in Gross Domestic Product during his national accounts address.
Josh Frydenberg said the coronavirus pandemic swung "a wrecking ball" through the economy but said Australia was doing better comparatively than other nations. "The impact... on GDP in the June quarter across the world has been staggering," Mr Frydenberg said. "In the United Kingdom, it has been around 20 per cent. In France, it has been around 14 per cent.
" The contraction represented the worst economic downturn since records began in the 1950s - dwarfing a two per cent quarterly drop in 1974. The Reserve Bank of Australia unsurprisingly announced yesterday it would again keep the cash rate on hold at the record low 0.25 per cent but Governor Philip Lowe confirmed another cut was unlikely for the "forseeable future".
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