00:00As more Australians tighten their belts, sales at this fruit shop are falling.
00:07I've never seen things this tough before. I've been in this industry since 1985, and
00:14this is the worst I've ever seen it.
00:17To get by, his customers are giving up fresh food.
00:21People are looking more for alternatives, and so sales on frozen goods have gone up.
00:28Living standards are going backwards, and Australians are feeling poorer.
00:33Life is just this constant hamster wheel, and we're basically working just to pay off
00:38our bills as opposed to really spending time with our kids.
00:42I'm currently working about four jobs right now.
00:44There's no respite, mate. Your salaries aren't growing with cost of living.
00:49The economy grew at just 0.2% in the three months to June, and 1% for the year.
00:56Outside the pandemic, that's the weakest growth since the 1990s recession.
01:01Government spending provided a lifeline, up 1.4% on public sector wages and social benefits
01:08like Medicare and the NDIS.
01:11But individually, Australians continue to go backwards in what's known as a per capita recession.
01:17Cash-strapped consumers barely put any money aside, and household spending fell by 0.2%
01:24with luxuries like air travel and eating out taking a big hit.
01:28We know and we see in this data that people are still doing it tough,
01:32and that's why the cost of living remains our highest priority.
01:36Households are in a recession. A GDP per person recession has been going now in this country for 18 months.
01:43Economists say record levels of immigration have been keeping the economy afloat.
01:48More people coming into the country, that's more people demanding housing,
01:53demanding goods, so it's been contributing to economic growth.
01:57With more customers scrimping and saving, a lot of businesses across the nation are having to cut costs.
02:03That's precisely the outcome the Reserve Bank wants,
02:06and why it's lifted interest rates aggressively over the past couple of years.
02:10But economists say some respite may not be far away.
02:14I think a rate cut by February is definitely possible.
02:17I actually do think that we are going to get further declines in inflation,
02:21and the next two inflation reports, which will give the RBA scope to start to cut interest rates early next year.
02:28Until then, consumers just have to tough it out.
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