Welcome to the June 2024 Economic Bulletin.
In our monthly feature we compare the current, ‘post-COVID’, recession to the other significant recessions of the last three-and-a-half decades: the 1991-92 recession, the 1997-98 recession, and the 2008-09 recession.
This analysis helps set the current economic situation in context – it provides a sense of how ‘bad’ the current recession is compared to others in recent memory; it also highlights the importance of active policy to mitigate rising unemployment in the current recession.
In our regular updates, we look at the GDP figures for the March 2024 quarter. These show a return to growth at the headline level, but a continuation of the decline in GDP per capita, which has now fallen further than during the 2008-09 recession.
We also update our rent-to-minimum-wage index, which shows a slight fall in the number of hours worked to pay rent on the minimum wage from the same time last year. This fall in the index is likely the result of the previous government’s decision to increase the minimum wage by 7.1% in 2023.
We also examine the latest inflation, migration, balance of payments, consumer and business confidence, and housing statistics. And we summarise the latest set of government accounts for May 2024.
For the latest employment, wages, social welfare, and consumer inflation data, please see the April Bulletin.
