(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Australia and the USA reward their workers and rejoin the growth economies after years of failure [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-18 Within its first year in office the Albanese Labor government has ensconced Australia in the exclusive club of growth economies while simultaneously changing how the national income pie is carved up. That’s according to the quarterly national accounts recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We say ‘growth economies’ because there is no longer much of a club of ‘high growth economies’ in these internationally troubled times. In the June quarter, 15 OECD members registered negative or zero growth. Even the Netherlands has now fallen into recession with two consecutive reversals, while Estonia, Germany, and Hungary remain in recession. Low economic growth still positive Downunder Australia’s growth in gross domestic product (GDP) for the three months to June was reported at 0.36% for the quarter and 2.07% for the year. These are marginal declines from the previous quarter, but show an improvement in global rankings. Annual GDP growth now ranks ninth in the OECD, up from eleventh last quarter, having crept ahead of Norway, Spain and Colombia but slipped behind the USA. This is a vast improvement on ranking 31st – out of 38 countries – which was where Australia ended up under the previous right-wing Coalition government. The annual rate of 2.07% is below Australia’s 25-year average of 2.90%, but nearly treble the current OECD average of 0.71%. Australia has now enjoyed seven consecutive quarters of positive quarterly GDP growth. The only other OECD economies to have achieved this are Belgium, Mexico and Slovakia. US growth surges in second quarter The USA recorded quarterly growth in the June quarter at 2.1% and annual GDP growth at 2.6%. The 2.6% rise ranks an impressive sixth in the OECD, behind only Greece, Iceland, Israel, Mexico and Turkey. That’s up from outside the top twenty during the dismal Trump years. Share of income going to bosses and employees Australia’s workers can be mightily encouraged that their share of the country’s income is still increasing. The lift in their slice of the income pie first observed last March is continuing. Strongly. The right side of our graph, at the top of this page, now shows a definite shift in the percentage of total factor income, seasonally adjusted, going to workers versus to profits. Since June 2022, the employees’ share has risen from 48.7% to 51.7%. That three percentage points rise is the highest over any four quarters since Gough Whitlam radically re-organised the kitchen in 1974. Commensurately, the slice going to corporate profits has declined over the full year by 2.54%. The last time that happened was also under Whitlam. Indicators showing the division of income and wealth within the USA are mixed. Wage rises have been stronger since Biden replaced Trump, but so has inflation. The latest Credit Suisse wealth report shows the wealth held by the bottom seventy per cent of the population reached an all-time high of 10.5% at the end of last year. The wealth held by the top ten per cent fell to 68%, down from 69.7% in 2019 and 2020. Last year’s level was the lowest since 2011. Strong results overall in Australia and the USA Given all the challenges domestic and global, Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers is presiding over increasingly impressive outcomes. Inflation for the year to the end of July has moderated to 4.9%, down from a disturbing high of 8.4% in December. The August jobless rate was 3.69%, down slightly from 3.72% in July, bringing the average for the last twelve months to a notable 3.57%. Exports remain strong and the trade balance keeps hitting new all-time highs. Similarly, Biden’s economic management has got inflation down from 9.1% in June last year to just 3.2% in July. The jobless rate is a satisfactory 3.8% and exports are at all-time highs. * This is an edited version of an article published earlier today in Independent Australia, available in full for free here: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/australia-rewards-its-workers-and-rejoins-the-growth-economies-,17910 * [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/18/2193973/-Australia-and-the-USA-reward-their-workers-and-rejoin-the-growth-economies-after-years-of-failure Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/