mr macfarlane gives an overview of the australian economy in the 1990s talk by the governor of the australian reserve bank, mr i j macfarlane, to the clsa investors ’ forum in hong kong on 21 may 1999. it is a pleasure to be in hong kong talking to the clsa investors ’ forum. this conference has built up quite a reputation over the years and i am honoured to be invited to address such an impressive group of investors. i will try my best to avoid presenting you with a “ sales pitch ”, but that is easier said than done. if you think that i am concentrating too much on the favourable side of the australian economy, you can always redress the balance when it comes to question time. the australian economy has attracted a fair bit of favourable attention lately because it has performed so well during the asian economic and financial crises. whilst this favourable publicity is very gratifying for people like myself who have been around during the lean years as well as the good ones, i do not intend to spend much time today talking about recent economic events. this is because i think the good performance of the australian economy is not just a recent event, but something that has been unfolding over the past decade. in other words, the recognition may be recent, but the underlying story has been around for a lot longer. we have now nearly completed the decade of the 1990s, with nine of the ten years already behind us. over this period of nine years, australia has grown faster than other comparable oecd countries ( slide 1 ). only ireland and norway, which taken together are only a little over half the size of australia, have done better, and there are special reasons in each case. this is the first decade to my knowledge where australia has put in such a strong growth performance relative to other oecd countries. while there have been other decades - such as the 1950s and 1960s - where australia grew faster in absolute terms, we did not exceed oecd average growth rates in those periods. the 1990s stands out as the first decade of the post - war era where australia ’ s growth would put it in the first quartile of performers. table 1 : real gdp growth average annual rate ( past nine years ) ireland norway australia netherlands united states denmark germany spain new zealand canada united kingdom belgium japan 6. 8 3. 5 3. 2 2. 8 2. 5 2. 5 2. 2 2. 2 2. 1 1. 9 1. 9 1

opposite pressures on wages in host and home countries, and increased burden for the social security and healthcare systems – not to mention the social and political consequences. another upside of international migration is that it helps reduce global economic inequality. according to the world bank, inequality between all people in the world has declined since 1990. however, the benefits of economic growth within countries are still distributed very unevenly. according to the world bank, since 2008, economic inequality within countries has largely stopped rising due to the fact that in most countries, along with economic growth, incomes of the less well - off 40 % of the population have increased. however, these 40 % of the population still 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches receive less than 25 % of total income of the total population. thus, despite fairly positive trends, inequality within countries is still even higher than 25 years ago. the corona crisis in most cases has only made things worse the great lockdown, as some have already named this crisis, will lead to a sharp decline in economic growth. the global economy will lose 3 % of real gdp this year, according to the imf. a partial recovery will take place next year, but gdp will still be below pre - virus levels. but this is only possible if the pandemic eases and quarantine measures are gradually relaxed this year, which is highly uncertain. the coronavirus has hit the labor market the hardest. due to the corona crisis global working hours in the second quarter may decrease by 10. 5 per cent compared to the last precrisis quarter. this is equivalent to 305 million full - time jobs. in addition, it could jeopardize 1. 6 billion people working in the informal economy, which is about half of the global workforce. these are rather appalling data from the international labor organization. the coronavirus does not seem to discriminate between the rich and the poor, or between whitecollar and blue - collar workers. however, the actual economic fallout from the pandemic is very unevenly distributed. in today ’ s world, the poorer the people, the simpler and lower - paid the jobs they hold, and the more that they rely on their jobs as the sole source of income, the more that they suffer. previous pandemics and crises have only exacerbated inequality, and the corona crisis is unlikely to be an exception, according to a recent study by a group of economists from the center for economic policy research.