Members commenced their discussion of international developments with a cross-country review of economic activity and developments in labour markets during the pandemic. A recurring theme was that Australia had fared relatively well in terms of output levels and labour market outcomes. The December quarter 2020 national accounts showed that GDP in Australia had recovered to close to pre-pandemic levels, whereas GDP was still considerably below pre-pandemic levels in many other countries. The loss of output over 2020 as a whole had also been smaller in Australia than in many other countries. This reflected both the ... (full story)