The end of the R-word

Bask in the economic sunshine.

Australia is not in recession! And it is now highly unlikely that we will experience two quarters of negative growth going forward. Which means that Australians can be pretty sure we are going to avoid a recession altogether.

This is great news. While there will be a lot of furious debate about what a technical recession means, that things are still bad and unemployment is yet to have a major impact, let’s just take a moment to celebrate.

Having escaped the recession tag means Australia will avoid being paraded around the world’s media as the latest addition to the economic basket cases. It means while the biggest economies in the world – US, UK, Germany, Japan and so on are “in recession” – we are still growing. That is a great message to send to the world.

Today’s announcement that GDP rose by 0.4% means we are also spared the R-word in headlines in the media for the next six months. We will avoid the constant reminder that the economy is going backwards.

Instead, for the first time for months there will be a focus on positive news with words like ‘expansion’ and ‘growth’ dominating the negative news.

While many commentators will declare that the word recession – is after all – just a word and times are still tough, I don’t care.

I am taking a moment to enjoy that sunshine.

Send in your good news below and let’s really celebrate.