Economic News

Australia's economy expanded by 0.4% in the June quarter, a pace that confirms the stronger recovery many had been waiting for has yet to arrive. Through the year, growth ran at 2.1%, and across the 2025–26 financial year at 2.4%, keeping the economy in …

On paper, the Australian economy is growing. Gross domestic product rose 0.4% in the June quarter and 2.1% through the year, and the country avoided a technical recession. Yet ask households whether they feel better off and the answer is often very different. Consumer …

For a generation, the family home has been Australia's great wealth machine, a store of rising value that made households feel richer and encouraged them to spend. That machine has gone into reverse. With dwelling values now down for five consecutive months and sitting …

Australia remains caught between two opposing forces: inflation that is still too high and an economy that is showing clearer signs of strain.

Australian consumers have slipped further into gloom, with the closely watched Westpac-Melbourne Instituteindexof Consumer Sentiment dropping to 84.4 in September from 88.9 a month earlier, a fall of 5.2%.

Strip open the August NAB business survey and the headline number, business conditions at minus one, is only the beginning of the story. Underneath it sits a spread of weakness that has become unusually wide: six of the eight industries surveyed reported deteriorating conditions, …

Australian businesses are showing clearer signs of strain, with a closely watched measure of operating conditions slipping below zero for the first time since 2020.