The Melbourne Newsroom

Are hobby farmers more important to the local community than industry farmers?

Residents in East Gippsland will soon know for the first time just how much the arts is worth, with a group of University of Melbourne Masters students beginning work on a tool to determine its monetary value.

Market fluctuations in East Asia and their impact on Australia is the focus of the latest edition of the Australian Economic Review (AER), the peak economic policy journal in the country.

Australia’s Gross Domestic Product will see modest growth in 2011 thanks to increases in domestic consumption and investment, a new report in the March edition of Australian Economic Review has revealed.

While the Australian economy recorded positive growth over the last economic quarter, Associate Professor Mark Crosby from the Melbourne Business School says Australia is still in recession.

"Most economists would not use the journalistic interpretation of recession i.e. two quarters of negative growth.  Most economists would have a pretty rubbery definition of it, but generally the settle on something 'significantly below trend'.  The Australian economy IS significantly below trend, with regards to GDP growth, so I would say we are in recession."

Dr Sam Wylie says that IMF predictions of a growth phase in the world economy in 2010 are off the mark, and says Australia should expect a long but shallow recession. 

"The financial crisis is going to take between $40-$60 billion out of Government revenues.  We should expect to see big defecits in Australia, with total government debt around $200 billion at the end of 2012, where at the moment its about $50 billion."

Associate Professor Mark Crosby from the Melbourne Business School says the Chinese Governments decision to increase investment overseas is a sign that China wants to be more closely integrated in the world economy.