Australia’s economy is on the verge of crawling to a standstill, with gross domestic product rising by just 0.1 per cent in the first three months of the year.
New national accounts data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed the weak figures – the lowest since September 2021, when the economy went backwards.
“GDP growth was weak in March, with the economy experiencing its lowest through the year growth since December 2020,” ABS head of national accounts Katherine Keenan said.
“GDP per capita fell for the fifth consecutive quarter, falling 0.4 per cent in March and 1.3 per cent through the year.”
Economists had been expecting either very weak or no growth, with Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock telling Senate estimates earlier today she didn’t expect GDP to increase.
”I would say that we are in a position where the economy is very weak,” she said.
“We’ve got … people cutting back on discretionary expenditure, but we’ve still got the labour market growing, and that’s a very important point to remember – that the unemployment rate is rising gradually but employment is still growing.”
