The Australian economy rose 3.3% in seasonally adjusted chain volume measures
Through the year GDP fell 3.8%
The terms of trade rose 0.7%
Household saving ratio decreased to 18.9% from 22.1%
Twas’ mostly a reopening private sector:
Except when we realise it was all publicly funded. Thank JobKeeper:
Government consumption still boomed:
As households spent like drunken sailors:
And saved like nuns!
Investment was stuffed:
But catch-up growth is fun:
Wildly distorted numbers courtesy of wild public spending. It will take another few quarters to wash this out before we get a clear picture of the underlying economy.
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.