Business

The Economy

Couple with Christmas presents and bags in shopping mall christmas shopping generic

Why we keep buying presents no one needs

Spend much time with economists around this time of year, and you will hear about the dreadful inefficiency of exchanging gifts. But there's a higher logic to the gift economy.

The fall in consumer confidence could be a worry for retailers in the Christmas shopping season.

Australian consumers spooked by poor GDP

A measure of Australia's consumer sentiment slipped to an eight-month low in December after disappointing data on the domestic economy shook confidence in the outlook for the year ahead.

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GDP: Short for Generally Dubious Puffery?

GDP might well be the least bad of all the flawed ways in which we can measure the health of our economy. But it's far from perfect, especially if you're aiming to capture the impact of the economy on people.

Illustration: Glen Le Lievre

Recession? Look out your window

What would economic race-calling be without its little excitements? As you may possibly have heard, this week's news is that the economy has contracted - shrunk, gone backwards - by 0.5 per cent.

Small Business