Ordinary households are struggling in a stagnant economy. Lay off them

Despite efforts by rate-rise supporters to talk them up, the March quarter national accounts released yesterday were ugly. They illustrate how much of a struggle things are for Australians with a mortgage or who are renting — roughly covering two-thirds of the country’s households.

The 0.1% GDP growth in the quarter for a 1.1% annual rate — compared to 1.6% in the December 2023 quarter — is economic stagnation. GDP per capita fell for a fifth quarter, but this was due as much to weak growth as the big rise in population that’s been pushing that indicator down in recent quarters.