The Conversation

GDP update: spending dips and saving soars as we stash rather than spend our tax cuts

Author: Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Australians saved rather than spent most of the budget tax cuts, almost doubling the proportion of household income saved, leaving spending languishing.

The September quarter national accounts show that in the first three months of the financial year real household spending grew by just 0.1%, the least since the global financial crisis.

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