Market Economics Managing Director and keynote Speaker Stephen Koukoulas spoke with Bloomberg Markets Asia regarding the RBA and the inflation surge.  As a keynote speaker and panellist Stephen is often asked to discuss the economy with diverse audiences due to his ability to turn complex economic analysis into terms mere mortals can understand.  

Australia’s dismal vaccination rate is undermining what was a great scorecard for the economy that emerged over the first half of 2021.

Since the start of 2021, the economic news was stunningly good. Not only relative to the forecasts and expectations of all economists, but in absolute terms with the unemployment rate falling, wages growth picking up, the stock market and house prices hitting record highs and business conditions and consumer sentiment tracking at or near record highs.

It has been obvious for many months that the Morrison government’s dithering, missteps and errors in obtaining enough COVID-19 vaccinations, was a huge risk to the health of Australians and was a major risk to the economic outlook.

The September labour force data show the impact of the recession on jobs, hours worked and unemployment. It is bad news. Depressing in many ways to realise that there are 937,400 Australians unemployed, a further 1,538,800 underemployed and that since the onset of Covid-19, the workforce participation rate has dropped by 1.3 percentage points as people have given up looking for work.