GDP in detail: Largest economic contraction on record

Wednesday 2 September 2020

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released the national accounts for the June quarter, which registered a 7.0% decline in real GDP over the quarter and a 6.3% decline over the year.

On a per capita basis, real GDP contracted by 7.2% over the quarter and was down 7.4% over the year.

The seasonally adjusted GDP decline was driven by a heavy fall in household consumption expenditure, which fell a record 12.1%, detracting 6.7 percentage points from GDP:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.