Treasurer confident of speed of Australia's economic recovery

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says he is confident of the speed and trajectory of Australia’s economic recovery as long as the coronavirus is controlled on the health front.

September’s GDP figures, released on Wednesday, revealed economic growth of 3.3 per cent which lifted Australia out of its technical recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The increase is the largest quarterly increase since 1976.

“Technically the recession is over in Australia, but Australia’s economic recovery still has a long way to go and there are a lot of Australians doing it tough,” Mr Frydenberg told Sky News.

“A lot of sectors that continue to find it difficult in the face of this once in a century pandemic and the greatest economic shock since the Great Depression.”

Mr Frydenberg also highlighted the reforms implemented by the Morrison government, but issued a stark reminder that not everyone can be saved.

“What we did during COVID is put in temporary relief, we lifted the threshold for the statutory demands that could be made on insolvent firms,” he said.

“That has meant that a number of those businesses that are doing it tough are protected through to the end of the year.

“There will be some businesses that don’t survive and there will be some jobs that can’t be saved.

“But we’re confident that the unemployment rate will continue to track downwards.”