The Economy, Stupid The 'weird' number running the country
Dec 4, 2025
Janine Dixon, an economic modeller and director at the Centre of Policy Studies, and Terry Rawnsley, urban economist at KPMG, dive into the complexities of GDP as a measure of Australian life. They discuss how GDP growth isn’t the full story, particularly when it comes to per capita adjustments and income flows. The conversation explores overlooked areas like unpaid work, regional economic disparities, and the importance of new data sources. They debate GDP's effectiveness in reflecting true well-being and hint at rising investment trends impacting productivity.
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GDP Is About Production, Not Wellbeing
- GDP measures the value of everything produced in the economy, not directly our wellbeing.
- Converting GDP into living standards needs population and income-owner adjustments.
Reconciling Three Ways To Measure GDP
- The ABS balances three views (income, production, expenditure) using judgement and supply-use tables.
- Data confrontation helps reconcile timing lags and missing survey responses.
Data Confrontation: The Black Friday Example
- Officials compare odd series and chase missing survey forms to make estimates sensible.
- Terry and Janine described late Black Friday sales shifting spending across quarters as an example.
