By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor

Investors are trained to be optimistic and hopeful but if the August reporting season proved one thing it is that hope is not an ideal strategy during times when economies are slowing and household budgets persistently under duress.

On balance, August results proved a rather uninspiring experience that mostly triggered a lukewarm reception from investors. The answer ‘why’ was yet again confirmed by this week’s update on GDP growth locally that, at 0.2% quarter-on-quarter and 1% annualised, printed the lowest outcome for any quarter in Australia since the early 1990s, outside of the covid downturn.

Equally important: consumer spending detracted -0.2% from economic growth in the June quarter (the worst number post-GFC ex-covid) and it was spending by the government, foreign students and visitors that kept the pace above zero.

Economists at Oxford Economics responded as follows:

“Net exports and public demand were the major contributors to growth in the quarter.

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