News & Insights

Australia is drifting back to its pre-covid rut. Economic growth is anaemic at best; GDP growth for FY2025 was the weakest year of growth since the recession of the early 1990’s. Per capita economic growth is even worse. Productivity growth has been nil for the last decade, household finances have barely improved since 2019, and private investment is only showing the most modest signs of life.

Australian business owners enter 2026 with a mix of optimism and hard-edged realism. Inflation has eased but remains persistent in the face of historically low unemployment, and Australia’s productive capacity is being tested more intensely than at any other time in recent decades. Capacity utilisation is near record levels, housing markets are booming, and the labour market-though softening at the edges-remains fundamentally tight.