2021 began with optimism. After Victoria beat off its virus second wave, Australia was effectively virus free with the economy primed to boom on the back of pent-up demand and the unprecedented stimulus saved by households that had yet to be unleashed on the economy.
The first half of 2021 saw GDP and consumption spending post a V-shaped recovery, while Australia’s unemployment rate cratered to just 4.5% – the lowest recorded level since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit in 2008.
Alas, the recovery was turned upside down when the Delta COVID strain arrived in Sydney in June, before spreading to regional NSW, Victoria and the ACT. Before long, half of the nation’s population was plunged into a long and painful lockdown.
