The Australian economy is out of recession. It shrank in the first two quarters of the year but has grown robustly in this latest three months.
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics said: "Gross Domestic Product rose 3.3 per cent this quarter, as COVID-19 related restrictions eased across most states and territories. This follows the record 7 per cent decline in the June quarter, 2020."
On one definition of a recession (two quarters of output falling), Australia is no longer in recession. Over the year, the economy will still have shrunk but growth now, at the end of the year, means the worst may be behind us.
And we are doing a lot better than elsewhere.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (which represents the world's biggest industrial economies except China) improved its forecast for this year's shrinkage of the Australian economy.
In September, it reckoned it would be 4.1 per cent smaller over the year. Now, it reckons it will be 3.8 per cent smaller.
But compare that with elsewhere: the OECD reckons the UK economy will shrink by 11.2 per cent in 2020, the French economy by 9.1 per cent and the US by 3.7 per cent. China is expected to grow by 1.8 per cent.
But the Australian figures indicate a cautious hurrah rather than full-throated whoops of joy.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said "a challenging time" remained. There was "lots of ground to make up". But, "Australia has performed better on the health and on the economic fronts than nearly any other country in the world."
"It means people are going to start getting their jobs back. It means people are going to get money in their pocket. It means businesses are going to get going," Jennifer Westacott, head of the Business Council of Australia said.
"Aggressively suppressing COVID has allowed restrictions to be eased, and together with substantial fiscal and monetary support this has led to a rebound in confidence and employment," Sarah Hunter, chief Australia economist at BIS Oxford Economics, said.
She didn't think there would be a dose of really hard tax medicine to get the public finances back into balance once the epidemic is over. Australia's budget deficit is projected to remain until at least 2030.