First Australia recession in nearly 30 years
Worrying times for Australia’s economy as newly-released figures show a record fall for the last quarter, meaning the country has entered its first recession in nearly 30 years.
That means Australia has now joined the U.S., Japan, UK, and Germany all in recession.
Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
“Our record run of 28 consecutive years of economic growth has now officially come to an end. The cause? A once in a century pandemic. The effect? A COVID-19 induced recession.”
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the country's A$2 trillion Australian dollar economy, or $1.47 trillion U.S shrank 7% in the three months to the end of June.
More than a million people have lost their jobs since March when Australia shut down entire sectors of the economy.
But some better news came from the Australian state of Victoria on Wednesday.
It’s been the hot spot of a second wave of coronavirus infections, but restrictions were eased further as the infection rate continued to fall.
Ninety new cases were reported, third straight day of double-digit new cases, indicating the strict lockdown measures were working.
It was only last month that daily new infections peaked at more than 700.
