March 2021 - the Westpac economics team investigate Australia’s COVID-19 recovery

Confidence in the pandemic recovery has continued to build over the past month. Globally this has come as a result of early success in the roll out of vaccines and, particularly in the US, the benefit of never before seen stimulus. In Australia, Q4 GDP highlighted Australia’s exceptional performance in the recovery to date; indeed, Westpac now believes the pre-pandemic level of GDP will be regained by March 2021. That said, in Australia and across the world, there remains a need for highly-accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future in pursuit of full employment, wages growth and consequently at target inflation.  

Amongst the team, key themes discussed this month include:

Forecast updates and the implications for policy (Chief Economist Bill Evans)Wages, the underlying trend and outlook 9:00 min (Senior Economist Justin Smirk)Housing affordability: actual and perceived 14:50 min (Senior Economist Matthew Hassan)Business investment, promising prospects for 2021 19:40 min (Senior Economist Andrew Hanlan)The US’ consumer fuelled recovery and China’s investment-driven future 22:30 min (Senior Economist Elliot Clarke)

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