Australia Q2 inventories, wages decline amid first recession in 30 years

[SYDNEY] Australian business inventories fell 3 per cent in the second-quarter driven by panic buying because of coronavirus-driven lockdowns, while wages slipped amid massive job losses as the country finds itself in its first recession in three decades.

In a surprising outcome, second-quarter gross company profits jumped 15 per cent, confounding expectations for a 7.5 per cent decline, largely helped by government subsidies, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed on Monday.

Australia is facing its deepest contraction in a century as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered entire sectors of the economy between mid-March and end-May resulting in hefty job losses.

A median of 17 economists polled by Reuters last week predicted second-quarter gross domestic product, due on Wednesday, would shrink 6 per cent from the March quarter when growth contracted by 0.3 per cent.

REUTERS