Sunday, September 11, 2016

How this country has gone 25 years without a recession

The last time Australia experienced a recession, the Soviet Union was still intact.
The country's economy has barely struggled, riding out the global financial crisis and other nasty shocks. "Australia's exceptional track record of 25 years of GDP growth without a recession has paralleled China's spectacular economic ascent," said Rajiv Biswas, chief Asia-Pacific economist at IHS Markit. But Australia can't rely on digging things out of the ground and shipping them off anymore. China's economy is now growing at its slowest pace in a quarter century, and commodity prices have collapsed from their peaks of a few years ago. Investment in Australia's huge mining sector has slumped, but other areas like housing construction and consumer spending have helped pick up some of the slack. The country's central bank has played its part, slashing interest rates to a record low. The plunge in the Australian dollar has helped make exports more competitive and attract tourists from overseas. The government has also lent a hand: In the latest quarter, growth was lifted by a sharp increase in public investment. Despite some warnings about rising debt levels, Australia's economy isn't generally expected to slip up anytime soon. "A recession in the next few years seems unlikely" unless there's a crash in China's economy or Australia's housing market, said Paul Dales, chief Australia and New Zealand economist at Capital Economics.


-- Matt Egan contributed reporting.
September 07 HONG KONG


http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/07/news/economy/australia-25-years-no-recession/index.html?category=economy

1 comment:

  1. I think this article is very interesting. The government is keeping the interest rates low to encourage borrowing and public investment increased. The investment portion of GDP is usually a good indicator of the economy and supports the claim that a recession is unlikely in the next few years.

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