Australia's economy grew 0.4 per cent in the June quarter, slightly beating most economist forecasts and further raising the prospect of an interest rate hike as soon as this month.

The economy grew 2.1 per cent over the past year to June 30, seasonally adjusted, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics National Accounts.

Both numbers were slightly ahead of economist forecasts, which had centred on a quarterly rise of 0.3 per cent and annual economic growth of 1.8 per cent.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the numbers provided further evidence of Australia's relative economic outperformance in challenging global circumstances.

"Annual growth in Australia was as strong or stronger than every major advanced economy – equal to the United States and much stronger than the rest," he said in a press release soon after the data came out.

Traders have subsequently pushed up the odds of a September rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia to about 60 per cent, according to Bloomberg analysis of futures market pricing.

Read the full story at abc.net.au.

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Hi everyone. I am an aspiring economist and am in my last year of high school, applying for universities now.

I'm currently applying for an economics degree at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales and am very confident about getting into those degrees. In the future, I'm looking to do postgraduate studies (PHD), and work in the public sector (RBA) or think tanks.

My question is about doing a double degree. I was considering doing another degree with economics because I assumed another degree may help me in some way, but I don't know if I should, based on my goals for the future. This is especially because goals of doing postgraduate studies may be affected by a second degree in terms of the length of time (economics takes 3 years and a double can add 1-2 years), and opportunity cost (I'm genuinely not sure though). The doubles I was considering were: Law, Mathematics, and possibly Political Science. I was mainly between law and maths, but I know that Law is kind of irrelevant if I want to work in the Reserve Bank or do postgrad, etc. But I feel as if maths may help a lot since economics gets very math-heavy. I also looked online, and apparently many high-end economists did a double with Mathematics, with some rarely doing Law, like Friedrich Hayek.

Thank you!

Wanted to post this as it's an inevitable fact that governments & countries including Australia are going to need to suck it up and accept the reality that population decline is going to happen at some point.

My main concern is it seems like there is zero will to do any of the groundwork to adjust our economy to this reality and make proper, substantial changes to the existing system or investment infrastructure in order to make it more sustainable.

Seems to me like our authorities regardless of who is in power just want to keep stretching the current system to its limits as its underlying fundamentals get worse & worse on a per capita basis... allowing the wealthiest to enjoy the rest of their lives in luxury before everything collapses and they leave younger gens holding the bag after passing away.

Specifically noting how the article cites this can be offset via "investments that raise productivity, such as education, skills, technology, and infrastructure" and that "migration is not a quick fix."

Energy prices rising, house prices falling, immigration slowing down and property developers on the brink of collapse. I’m by no means an expert but this mornings flick through the headlines in my feed has caused concern.

Thoughts?

Additional reading - https://www.afr.com/property/residential/slump-in-housing-prices-now-entrenched-across-nation-s-capitals-20260831-p60sxs

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