At 1.8% y/y economic growth is at its slowest since the GFC.
And, yes, these two responses I quoted in the headline are real.
Miserable indeed.
Data and my response (grim) is here:
A lot of the growth came from government spending. Households cut back their their spending (how long have we been banging on about high levels of debt and slow wage growth as a negative … oh add in falling house price impact too? Retail sales data has been poor for so long … this is not new news).
The data is for Q1, which means its dated. But fundamentals have not gotten much better since, if at all. Q2 should be another poor turnout. The RBA is watching labour market developments mainly. Is weaker growth a labour market development? You bet it is. Unemployment to rise. More cuts on the way. Too late, but better than nothing.
