Australia scores a B- on its latest economic report card. It’s an improvement, but there’s still a long way to go

‘With more recent data showing that consumers are becoming less pessimistic, if not yet optimistic, the RBA will be watching this space closely.’ Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Australia’s economy grew by 0.6% over the three months to June this year, and by 1.8% over the year to June. This outcome was better than expected by most economists and, if you’re a glass half-full type of person, you would have been happy to see that the economy has picked up its pace from a very lacklustre performance in 2024.

However, while we economists may be very excited to dig down into the “national accounts” stats on such thrilling concepts as per capita gross domestic product (GDP), the implicit price deflators and fixed capital formation, you may well be asking yourself what on earth does any of this have to do with me?