The Leading Index shows little change in the Australian economy’s sub-par performance. October marks the fifteenth successive sub-zero read on the Index growth rate – signalling that the activity is set to remain in the ‘low growth rut’ that has prevailed throughout 2023 well into 2024. Note that this is still consistent with moderately positive growth in absolute terms. With Australia’s population currently growing at around 2.4%yr, our ‘trend’ GDP growth rate is well above 3%yr even under very conservative productivity assumptions. Both Westpac and the RBA expect actual growth to be in the 1-2% range both this year ... (full story)