Households face a bleak year ahead: falling real wages, dropping home values, stalled productivity and rising bills hitting families and firms.
Australian and American politics this week laid bare an uncomfortable truth: inflation is an economic and political cancer.
Untreated, it metastasises into a wealth-destroying spiral that only the most painful, aggressive interventions can cure.
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Australia’s last recession left many people better off. A recession this time around may be very different.
Expectations for rate cuts next year have dwindled quickly as the end of 2026 approaches, with the Reserve Bank warning households are likely to feel like they are living through a recession.
Markets and economists expect the Reserve Bank to push interest rates up to 4.85 per cent on Tuesday.
