Chief Economist at Australian Retirement Trust, Brian Parker, explains the economic outlook at the moment, from a global, national and local point of view which is followed by a Q+A session with the CEO of InvestmentMarkets, Angelina Wu.
Most market commentaries explain major price moves after the fact with tidy causes that sound obvious only in hindsight. In my opinion, that’s not an intellectually honest approach in the current environment.
Australia’s GDP rose 0.3% in the March quarter and 2.5% over the year. While that’s not recessionary, it’s hardly exuberant and was once again negative in per capita terms. The main headwinds are subdued household and government consumption, while adverse weather hampered mining production and exports. On a more positive note, there’s been a lift in business investment linked to data centre machinery and equipment.