The Australian economy is now a bit like a car that is struggling to get up a hill. At the bottom of the hill – the depths of the COVID pandemic – a whole lot of fuel was added to the tank in terms of government payouts to try to keep the economy ticking over as employment and running a business became really difficult. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the billions of dollars of government stimulus paid out was far more than was actually needed so the Australian economic car started accelerating up the hill with a fair head of steam. As the effect of that stimulus began to wane and the household savings that had been put ... (full story)