The Early 1990s Recession in Australia began in the March quarter of 1991 and lasted for about a year. During the recession unemployment rose above 10 per cent. The recession came in response to the unwinding of the asset price boom in Australia during the 1980s, the international recession of the early 1990s and high interest rates, which were necessary to help reduce Australia's high inflation rate at the time.

Economic growth refers to an increase in the size of a country's economy over a period of time. The size of an economy is typically measured by the total production of goods and services in the economy, which is called gross domestic product (GDP).

Economic growth can be measured in ‘nominal’ or ‘real’ terms. Nominal economic growth refers to the increase in the dollar value of production over time. This includes changes in both the volume of production and the prices of goods and services produced. Economists normally talk about real economic growth – that is, increases in the volume produced only, which takes away the effect of prices changing. This is because it better reflects how much a country is producing at a given time, compared with other points in time.

The Chart Pack summarises macroeconomic and financial market trends in Australia and provides some information about developments for our main trading partners. The graphs in the Chart Pack are updated monthly. For more information about the source data for the Chart Pack graphs, see Data Availability. The Reserve Bank also publishes extensive statistical data on our website.

Browse the left-hand navigation to choose the graph subject category. You can then view or download the graphs individually.

Preliminary estimates for August indicate that the index increased by 0.5 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after increasing by 0.1 per cent in July (revised). The non rural and base metals sub-indices increased in the month, while the rural sub-index decreased. In Australian dollar terms, the index decreased by 0.4 per cent in August.

Over the past year, the index has decreased by 9.2 per cent in SDR terms, led by lower coal and LNG prices. The index has decreased by 12.2 per cent in Australian dollar terms.

Consistent with previous releases, preliminary estimates for iron ore, coking coal, thermal coal and LNG export prices are being used for the most recent months, based on market information. Using spot prices for the bulk commodities, the index increased by 2.1 per cent in August in SDR terms, to be 0.4 per cent higher over the past year.

For further details regarding the construction of the index, please refer to ‘Changes to...

This corporate plan is prepared for 2020/21 in accordance with section 35(1)(b) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and covers the reporting periods from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2024.

The accountable authority of the Reserve Bank of Australia is the Governor.

The plan outlines the Bank's mission and key objectives, the activities that it undertakes to achieve them and how it measures performance. It also discusses the external environment in which the Bank operates, the Bank's organisational capability and the Bank's approach to managing and overseeing the key risks it faces.

You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

Thanks to Australian Business Economists for hosting this webcast. A short while ago the Bank released its regular Statement on Monetary Policy (SMP), including details on our updated outlook. But these times are far from regular. Australia, along with the rest of the world, has been subjected to a shock without modern precedent. The COVID-19 pandemic has induced an enormous contraction in the global economy. Labour markets have been severely disrupted everywhere. The policy response has also been enormous, from public health agencies to financial regulators, central banks and fiscal authorities. All arms of public policy are needed to deal with the health crisis and support the recovery.

Today I would like to take you through some of the detail on the outlook, and provide some background on the thinking and analysis behind those numbers.

The Statement on Monetary Policy sets out the Bank's assessment of current economic conditions, both domestic and international, along with the outlook for Australian inflation and output growth. A number of boxes on topics of special interest are also published. The Statement is issued four times a year.

The Chart Pack summarises macroeconomic and financial market trends in Australia and provides some information about developments for our main trading partners. The graphs in the Chart Pack are updated monthly. For more information about the source data for the Chart Pack graphs, see Data Availability. The Reserve Bank also publishes extensive statistical data on our website.

Browse the left-hand navigation to choose the graph subject category. You can then view or download the graphs individually.

Preliminary estimates for July indicate that the index increased by 0.9 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after decreasing by 0.2 per cent in June (revised). The non-rural and base metals sub-indices increased in the month, while the rural sub-index decreased. In Australian dollar terms, the index decreased by 0.2 per cent in July.

Over the past year, the index has decreased by 12 per cent in SDR terms, led by lower coal, iron ore, LNG and oil prices. The index has decreased by 12.1 per cent in Australian dollar terms.

Consistent with previous releases, preliminary estimates for iron ore, coking coal, thermal coal and LNG export prices are being used for the most recent months, based on market information. Using spot prices for the bulk commodities, the index increased by 0.6 per cent in July in SDR terms, to be 13.9 per cent lower over the past year.

For further...

Economics is a social science and I think that it's easy to forget that economics is about people. Philosophy comes into it. Social sciences come into it, health comes into it, a lot of psychology.

I chose to study economics 'cause I realised it was a really powerful tool, for being part of a conversation. Most people that get into economics, they can see how exciting it is, and how useful it is for a whole range of jobs. You can use this problem solving, analytical tool set for everything.

I love that economics just touches on every facet of daily life and I think that's because every sort of large or significant public policy decision that impacts us today, was originally informed by some sort of economic theory.

I truly believe that economics is a way and a construct in which we can talk about deeply human problems and the things which matter to all of us.

If you don't understand economics, you're really locking yourself out of the this whole...

Inflation is an increase in the level of prices of the goods and services that households buy. It is measured as the rate of change of those prices. Typically, prices rise over time, but prices can also fall (a situation called deflation).

The most well-known indicator of inflation is the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the percentage change in the price of a basket of goods and services consumed by households.

In Australia, the CPI is calculated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and published once a quarter. To calculate the CPI, the ABS collects prices for thousands of items, which are grouped into 87 categories (or expenditure classes) and 11 groups. Every quarter, the ABS calculates the price changes of each item from the previous quarter and aggregates them to work out the inflation rate for the entire CPI basket.

Economists at the RBA share insights on why they chose to study economics, their career path and their role. This event supports careers education and is primarily aimed at high school students, undergraduate students, teachers and careers advisors.

Date: Friday, 31 July 2020 Time: 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm AEST Cost: Free

Express Interest

In the early stages of the pandemic, there was extreme uncertainty about how much economic activity would decline and how long the economic disruption would last. It was also uncertain how much support would be provided by monetary and fiscal authorities. And so, as the virus spread around the world through early March, extreme uncertainty and the prospect of a sizeable decline in economic activity was reflected in financial markets globally. In particular, there was a sharp rise in the volatility of asset prices, a decline in the prices of risky assets, and before too long, dislocation in a number of key financial markets (Graph 1). Most notable were the problems affecting government bond markets, which are critical to the pricing and operation of financial markets more broadly. Australia was no exception.

Economics is a social science and I think that it's easy to forget that economics is about people. Philosophy comes into it. Social sciences come into it, health comes into it, a lot of psychology.

I chose to study economics 'cause I realised it was a really powerful tool, for being part of a conversation. Most people that get into economics, they can see how exciting it is, and how useful it is for a whole range of jobs. You can use this problem solving, analytical tool set for everything.

I love that economics just touches on every facet of daily life and I think that's because every sort of large or significant public policy decision that impacts us today, was originally informed by some sort of economic theory.

I truly believe that economics is a way and a construct in which we can talk about deeply human problems and the things which matter to all of us.

If you don't understand economics, you're really locking yourself out of the this whole...

Describes how changes made by the Reserve Bank to the cash rate – the ‘instrument’ of monetary policy – flow through to economic activity and inflation.

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