The Australian economy is poised to record its weakest growth in decades — and there's no silver lining
The Australian economy may have posted smallest expansion on an annual basis this millennium, or possibly even since the 1990s downturn.
We have probably just lived through the weakest year for economic growth in Australia this millennium, or perhaps even earlier than that, as the impact of higher interest rates and rising prices finally took their toll.
That's the view of the economics researchers at some of the country's biggest financial institutions ahead of the release of GDP figures for the December quarter on Wednesday.
Among them is NAB’s economics team, who expect tomorrow's data to reveal a 0.2% rise in the December quarter. On this prediction, the economy grew 1.4% last year, the worst annual result since the millennium.
AMP thinks it’ll be even worse at a “very soft” 0.1% in the final quarter. That's 1.3% over the year. Deloitte Access Economics’ business outlook also forecast 2024 would end with 1.3% growth overall. This would be the weakest result since the early-1990s recession. Westpac thinks the result will potentially be 0% for the quarter, while ANZ is tipping 0.3% and Commonwealth Bank expects 0.2%.
