Australia Now Holds Record For No Recession - 26 Years

It’s official!

No matter what the doomsayers say and write. Australia now has not had a recession for 26 years — a new world record.

The record was broken when the economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the March quarter, with annual growth to March at 1.7 per cent, official figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

Business surveys and job advertisements are pointing to further healthy growth in hiring.

The best growth in profits since the global financial crisis and strong demand for services are supporting employment, which the National Australia Bank’s monthly survey suggests is likely to continue rising by about 20,000 positions a month.

The ABS analysis of the underlying trend, which it says is more reliable than the headline result, is consistent with the NAB survey showing the pace of hiring picked up from an average of only 7,000 a month over the first ten months of last year to a healthier 21,700 positions a month since last December.

This is in line with growth in the labour force and is sufficient employment growth to keep unemployment around its current level of 5.7 per cent.

It has now been nearly 26 years — or 103 quarters — since Australia had a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Australia last recorded two negative quarters of economic growth in March and June 1991, before enjoying 103 quarters without a recession to equal the record set by The Netherlands.

Australia being a resources-rich nation with a long stretch of expansion has been supported by economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the floating of our currency, a flexible labour market, financial sector and capital markets deregulation and lower tariffs.

Australia has also benefited from China’s economic growth and hunger for natural resources, which led to an unprecedented mining investment boom and record commodity prices.

Australia is successfully making a transition away from a dependence on mining investment as the boom ends and there is growth in non-resources sectors.

Troy Gunasekera // National Manager