My talk today will cover three topics. First I will provide a perspective on the historic decline in output that both the Australian and global economies have experienced and discuss the current state of the economy. Second I will explain how the monetary policy actions the Reserve Bank has taken are working to support the Australian economy, complementing the large fiscal response. Finally I will outline possibilities for further monetary policy action should the Reserve Bank Board decide that it is warranted.
The Economic Impact of the Pandemic
The pandemic has resulted in a historic decline in output in the Australian and global economy. Graph 1 shows the GDP outcomes for a range of economies. It is a truly daunting picture in terms of the size and the synchronised nature of the declines.
Graph 1
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David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
