"Technically,Australia's recession may be over,but Australia's economic recovery is not. There is a lot of ground to make up and many Australian households and many Australian businesses are doing it tough,"he said.
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The impact of the Victorian lockdown was most obvious in state final demand,which measures the domestic side of state and territory economies. Victorian state final demand is 9.8 per cent down on a year ago while in NSW,it is down by 3.3 per cent.
The Treasury,Reserve Bank and the OECD in its global outlook released this week had been expecting the Australian economy to return to its pre-virus level early in 2022.
But the strong rebound in the September quarter,and signs the December quarter will also be strong due to the reopening of Victoria,is forcing a re-appraisal of those forecasts.
NAB chief economist Alan Oster said growth of about 2 per cent in the December quarter was likely as Victoria exited its lockdown.
"Additional gains in consumer spending,supported by the end of Victoria's lockdown,should support a healthy recovery in activity. As such,NAB forecasts GDP to have recovered pre-virus levels by the end of 2021,"he said.
The figures,however,did show ongoing weakness in business investment. Spending by private firms on buildings dropped 4.9 per cent to be 9.6 per cent lower over the year,while expenditure on plant and equipment is now 13 per cent lower than at the September quarter 2019.
Net exports sliced the overall result by 1.9 percentage points,with the country being hurt by the absence of foreign tourists and international students while the growing diplomatic dispute with China is hitting sales of Australian coal and wine.
Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said despite the economy now in recovery mode,for many people it would still feel like a recession.
"This quarterly GDP number will be cold comfort for a million Australians unemployed;cold comfort for the 2.4 million Australians who are either looking for work or looking for more hours at work,"he said.
RBA governor Philip Lowe,giving evidence to a parliamentary committee,said there were positive signs for many parts of the economy,which was expected to grow by 5 per cent in 2021 and 4 per cent in 2022.
But he warned the recovery would be bumpy,with unemployment likely to remain above 6 per cent for an extended period.
"What has become clearer,though,as time has passed is that Australia is likely to experience a run of years with unemployment too high and wage increases and inflation too low,"he said.
Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie said while some pundits were marking the end of the recession,it was a different story for those without a job and reliant on government support.
"We are still in recession as long as we have high levels of unemployment. We are still in recession while less than half the full-time jobs lost have been replaced. At this stage,we've only regained one-third of them,"she said.