Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Wednesday that the country was “technically” out of recession after the nation’s economy grew by 3.3% in the third quarter.
In a news conference in Canberra, Frydenberg told reporters that Australia still had a lot of lost ground to make up and the road ahead will be “bumpy” following the nation’s first recession in nearly 30 years.
Gross Domestic Product figures which were released earlier in the day indicated that the economy grew when compared with the previous quarter – but still contracted by 3.8% for the year ending September.
That’s after the coronavirus caused a slight contraction in the first quarter and then a 7% slump in the second quarter.
Frydenberg also commented on the situation with his country’s biggest trading partner, China, labelling it “very serious” amid rising tensions between the two nations.
The rift between the countries grew recently after a Chinese official shared a Tweet which showed a fake image of an Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to a child’s throat.
The incident is further souring already tense relations between Australia and China.
The Australian government had in the past called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
China has since imposed tariffs and other restrictions on a number of Australian exports.
AP