If you are feeling financially depleted personally, and pessimistic about the economic outlook generally, figures released this week won’t cheer your mood.
The OECD found Australia was one of 11 developed countries where the real minimum wage had fallen between April 2025 and April 2026.
Meanwhile, Deloitte Access Economics in its latest Business Outlook cut its forecast for growth in 2026–27, with the dismal message, “The economy is now expected to limp along at less than 2.0% annual growth for the next two years”.
This was followed by the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook data projecting Australia’s GDP growth to be 1.9% this year and 1.7% next year.
Australia’s overall economic growth is slow, but at least it’s in positive territory. However, that’s held up by population increase. On a per capita basis, GDP went backwards in two of the past five quarters (March 2025 and March 2026) and was flat in a third (September 2025).
