Philip Lowe: Recent economic developments
Speech by Mr Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, at the Australian Financial
Review's (AFR) Business Summit, Sydney, 9 March 2022.
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Thank you for the invitation to participate in this year's AFR Business Summit. It is very good to
be with you again.
I would like to cover four issues today:
1. The resilience of the Australian economy and some of the major uncertainties, including the
invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
2. The journey towards full employment in Australia.
3. The recent inflation data.
4. The implications of these developments for monetary policy in Australia.
The resilience of the Australian economy
Last week we received further evidence of the resilience of the Australian economy. In the
December quarter, GDP increased by 3.4 per cent, which was one of the biggest quarterly
increases on record. Over the final months of the year, there was a very strong bounce-back in
household consumption following the mid-year Delta lockdowns. Over 2021 as a whole, the
economy grew by 4.2 per cent, taking the level of GDP to 31⁄2 per cent above its
pre-COVID19 level (Graph 1). This is a very good outcome by global standards, which is something we
should not forget.