Yesterday announcement from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) that Australia is not in a recession has left economists red faced, after months of predicting that Australia was heading for a deep recession.
The latest data released by the ABS has shown that the Australian economy grew by 0.4 percent (seasonally adjusted) in the March quarter, escaping a recession.
Australian Retailers Association executive director Richard Evans believes economists should have paid more attention to retail trends before spreading their “doom and gloom.”
“Economists have been shouting ‘recession’ for the past six months and today they have egg on their face.”
Evans said that retailing is the barometer of the economy and at the moment, there is “a lot of good economic news” and retailers are predicting improved growth from the September quarter.
“Retailers are working hard to overcome this negative rhetoric and stimulate consumer spend with $10.6 billion in stocktake sales expected over June which is a 2.7 percent growth on last year’s $10.3 billion spend.”
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Australia not in recession
