The Treasurer’s MYEFO statement today presents a rosier picture of Australia’s path to economic recovery than what was presented only 10 weeks ago when he announced the 2020-21 budget. 

The final RBA Board meeting of the year saw a continuation of the loosest monetary policy arrangements Australia has ever seen.

The Budget suggests the Victorian economy will be severely hit this financial year due to impacts associated with the coronavirus lockdowns.

As foreshadowed by KPMG the cash rate has been reduced from 0.25% to 0.10% at today’s RBA Board Meeting.

Today’s Labour Force survey shows that the Australian economy was continuing to recover in September despite the unemployment rate ticking up to 6.9 percent.

The Government has gone ‘all-in’ with the Budget, betting on the private sector to pony up and drive the post-coronavirus economic recovery for the nation.

The size of this current economic and social catastrophe brought about by COVID-19 is one we haven’t seen in nearly 80 years. It will take time to come back from this. But our nation can.

The latest GDP results shows the national economy screeched to halt in the June quarter of 2020, declining 7 percent from the previous quarter, to be down 0.2 percent year on year.

Among the myriad reasons to hope for a vaccine for COVID-19 is that an ongoing shortfall in skilled immigration will significantly damage Australia’s medium-term economic fortunes.