How Australia is tracking against its six economic objectives
The indicators behind each objective, why they moved, and what monetary, fiscal, microeconomic and labour-market policy is doing about it right now.
The 2026 oil shock has knocked Australia off course on two objectives and made the other four harder. Inflation is 3.5%, above the 2–3% target for a second year, and the RBA has answered with four rate rises to 4.60% — even as quarterly growth slows to 0.4% and unemployment climbs to 4.6%.
Dearer fuel imports have widened the current account deficit to 3.7% of GDP, real wages are falling again, and renewables keep taking a larger share of the grid even as the pipeline of new projects slows. Choose an objective below to see its indicators, the reasons they moved and the four policy levers.
Economic growth
Growth held up over 2025–26 on an investment boom, but it slowed sharply in the June quarter as fuel costs and rate rises squeezed households — and output per person is barely rising.
The indicators
Why they changed
An investment boom. Data-centre and renewable-energy projects lifted business investment 10.4% over the year — the strongest driver of 2025–26 growth.
Households squeezed. Dearer fuel, four rate rises and falling real wages held household spending to 0.4% growth in the June quarter.
Population, not productivity. Growth has come mainly from more people and more hours worked; output per hour fell 0.2%, so living standards are barely improving.
What policy is doing
Current settings, and whether each one helps or hinders economic growth.
Four rises in 2026 took the cash rate from 3.60% to 4.60%, the highest since 2011.
Dearer credit cuts consumption and investment; the RBA expects growth of only about 1.4% over 2026.
The 2026–27 Budget runs a $31.5 billion deficit (1.0% of GDP); Treasury forecasts 1.75% growth in 2026–27.
Spending on health, care and housing adds directly to aggregate demand.
Productivity package: 497 more nuisance tariffs abolished from 1 July 2026, cuts to regulation costs, a revived National Competition Policy and $500 million for faster approvals.
Lower business costs and stronger competition lift productivity and potential growth over time.
$85.2 million for faster skills assessments for migrant tradespeople, a revised migration points test and draft laws to ban most non-compete clauses.
More skilled workers and easier job-switching raise labour supply and productivity.
Which levers help which objective, right now
Monetary policy is fighting inflation, fiscal policy is still adding to demand, and micro and labour-market reforms work slowly on the supply side. Read across a row to see where the levers pull together — and where they pull apart.
The three trade-offs to watch
Tightening brings inflation back toward 2–3% but lifts unemployment toward 4.7% — the short-run Phillips-curve trade-off.
The RBA is raising rates while the Budget runs a $31.5 billion deficit. The two arms pull in opposite directions, so rates must do more of the work.
Higher borrowing costs slow capital-heavy wind, solar and storage projects just as the 2030 targets need them to speed up.