Is Australia heading for a recession?

Question

Is Australia heading for a recession?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

You must be kidding. Our economy is linked to China's, not America's (thank goodness) and we are going like a steam train. You should start getting worried when interest rates begin tumbling for months in a row. Right now they're rising because we're doing so well, Aussies feel rich and they're spending too much.

Answer 3

No. Our Economy is booming thus Interest Rates rise, Jobs become scarcer and everthing costs more.Makes you wonder how we are booming does it not.

Answer 4

So they have been saying.

Answer 5

I'm afraid we may be heading that way but there is still time to put some buffers in place to lessen the impact and perhaps even avoid a recession altogether. We are however, bound to have at least a downturn.

The days are long gone when you could look at the Australian economy in isolation. When America is in recession, the rest of the world' economies become vulnerable and if China's growth slows (and there is no guarantee that it won't), Australia will be badly affected and very quickly.

The US sub-prime crisis has already affected our economy far more that many people realise and there is more bad news to come. Failures like Opus Prime are only the beginning and the dogs are barking that there are more failures on the horizon. That type of failure sends share prices down: more investors are affected by margin calls: available investment funds dry up: business confidence drops, and before you know it, you have a negative growth quarter heralding the beginning of a recession. The worst thing Australia can do is to remain complacent.

I'm very happy that the Rudd/Swan government is now in power and believe they will adopt a far less 'ostrich-like' attitude to any downturn than Howard's born-to-rule, ivory tower conservatives would have done.

Answer 6

No, on the contrary. The economy is over heating, thats why interest rates keep going up.

Answer 7

well i think it is..fair enough interest rates are rising but what does that mean?  its really depressing to see that interest rates on home loans in Australia are 8 up percent and in lets say Czech rep its 5.5!!!!!

Answer 8

Oh yes. Australia, Nz, Everywhere.....

Answer 9

No, we have the opposite problem that the economy is growing too fast, so we need interest rate rises and/or government spending cuts to slow it down.

Answer 10

No...

Corporates are becoming guarded and are pulling back on spending, but at the end of the day the demand on our commodities; and reasonable GDP figures means that we're not looking bad.  

The only issue we need to be wary off is the rate of inflation - but we're getting it now and people are not spending so irresponsibly now.  Borrowing rates down,  and house prices are steadying, which is all good.