There is the inexorable shift of global economic weight to Asia, the public-debt problems in the North Atlantic economies, the multi-speed nature of the Australian economy, the more conservative approach to spending and borrowing by Australian households, and the list goes on. You will be relieved to hear that I don’t plan to talk about all these today.
Rather, I would like to spend my time this morning exploring just one of these issues, and that is the changing patterns in household saving and spending in Australia. This issue is not only interesting in its own right, but understanding these changes also helps us understand some of the broader changes that are occurring within the Australian economy.