Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Walsh for the question and congratulate her on her appointment as chair of the economics committee. Today's national accounts reflect an economy that's rebounding from the disruption of the pandemic but is being held back by capacity constraints, skills shortages and declining real wages. This is a familiar story that we are seeing, certainly familiar in terms of the economy and the economic challenges that we inherited on forming government.

While the headline figures are encouraging, the data released today confirm the pressures that are being felt by Australian households and that are weighing on our supply chains. The national accounts figures released today show that the economy grew by 0.9 per cent in the June quarter 2022 to be 3.6 per cent higher through the year. GDP increased 3.9 per cent over the 2021-22 financial year. That growth reflected the continuing pandemic recovery and was concentrated in the services industry, particularly as this was the first full quarter of reopened domestic and international borders since the pandemic began some two years ago.

The quarterly increase was driven by increases in household consumption, which was 2.2 per cent, net exports and new business investment, partly offset by inventories and dwelling investment. In particular, household consumption grew by 2.2 per cent in the quarter. It was, I think, six per cent higher through the year and contributed 1.1 percentage points to real GDP growth in the quarter. The household savings ratio fell to 8.7 per cent in June, down from 1.1 per cent in March. Dwelling investment fell as most states continued to experience material and labour shortages, and industries detracted from growth, driven by drawdowns from the mining industry and from agriculture.