Western Australia’s economy is continuing to bounce back solidly behind its hard border, with new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showing 88% of jobs in the state lost due to COVID-19 were recovered by August 22.
This is the claim made by the state’s Treasurer, Ben Wyatt, on Tuesday.
He said the ABS Payroll Jobs data also showed WA has had the lowest number of jobs lost since mid-March – 1% compared to a figure of 4.2% nationally.
Figures highlight the effect of the hard border
“[Tuesday’s] job results follow other recent economic data releases that highlight the strength of the Western Australian economy behind its hard border, and the significant role of WA in softening the economic blow to the Australian economy,” a statement released by the Treasurer’s office said.
ABS National Accounts data released last week showed Western Australia’s domestic economy was the only state to experience growth for the 2019-20 year, growing 1.1%. This was the fastest growth in seven years.
States with open borders faired significantly worse than those with closed borders in the June quarter, with New South Wales and Victoria both contracting by around 8.5%.
Western Australia contracted 6% in June quarter
By comparison, Western Australia contracted by 6% in the June quarter, the statement said.
“Economic data continues to highlight how Western Australia’s response to COVID-19 and our hard border closure is supporting our economy to bounce back far stronger than expected,” Wyatt claimed.
“WA’s economic performance is also outperforming most advanced economies around the world, demonstrating that our response has been world-leading.”
National economies were hard hit in last quarter
He added: “There is no doubt that the global economy is suffering under the impacts of COVID-19, however, WA is faring much better than most.”
Australia’ national economy contracting by 7% in the June quarter. The UK economy contracted 20.4%, the Euro Area contracted by 12.1 per cent, and the US economy fell by 9.1% in the June quarter.
