On one key measure for households, Australia is already in a deep recession comparable to the early 1990s.
That measure is GDP per capita, or how much economic activity there is per person.
The March quarter National Accounts showed GDP per capita fell 0.4 per cent over the first three months of 2024 and 1.3 per cent over the past year.
With its big migration intake, Australia hasn't been a stranger to per capita recessions, even over its record-breaking recession-free run between 1991 and the COVID pandemic.
But AMP chief economist Shane Oliver says this is the worst one since the early '90s.
Even with the boost from record population growth, Australia's annual headline GDP increase of 1.1 per cent over the past year was the weakest, outside the pandemic shutdown, since the early '90s.
