Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Government has no idea how to turn around Australia's "floundering" economy, claiming economic growth had fallen to the lowest level since the global financial crisis. Dr Chalmers has made a fair call. There are several ways to measure economic growth but Dr Chalmers did not specify which measure he was referring to. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' closely-watched chain volume measure of gross domestic product, published in the quarterly National Accounts, shows the Australian economy expanded 0.26 per cent in the March quarter, in trend terms. That produced an annual growth rate of 1.74 per cent. In trend terms, it was the slowest quarterly growth since the March quarter of 2003, and the slowest annual growth rate since the June quarter of 2009. This is consistent with Dr Chalmers's claim. In seasonally adjusted terms, growth improved slightly to 0.41 per cent in the March quarter, from 0.22 per cent the previous quarter. This produced an annual growth rate of 1.81 per cent, the weakest since the September quarter of 2009. In seasonally adjusted terms, the annual result is broadly consistent with Dr Chalmers' claim, although the latest quarterly result is not the weakest. Australia is, in annual terms, growing at the slowest pace since the global financial crisis, bearing in mind there are several ways to "slice and dice" the figures.
Verdict: Fair call