Swift economic recovery likely: Commsec

Article Category: Demographics

By Tim Neary, 23 October 2009

According to Craig James, chief economist at Commsec, it's not so much a question of whether the economy is recovering – rather the real question is what shape the recovery will take.

Speaking at the (finance broker) PLAN Australia national conference in Cairns, he added that since the economic fundamentals in the current market so closely mirrored those of the 2000 recession he believed this economy would make a "swift V-shape recovery".

Furthermore, he said the reasons for this optimism were a combination of Australia being the only advanced nation to already be showing growth after the onset of the GFC; it being the only one of the "top four" economies to not go into a recession; and it being the first economy to lift interest rates and drive share prices higher.

However, saying that in most economic scenarios there were winners and losers he added a word of caution along with his prediction of a rapid return to economic prosperity.

"With everyone coming back into the market there will be new challenges to deal with - particularly around staffing and added competition issues," he said.