Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Can we appreciate the good economic news coming out?

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Recorded17 Dec 2025

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I know you shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch, but can we just take a minute to look at the good economic news coming out? Government books aside, tomorrow's GDP read will show we bounced back with a spring in Q3 - close to 1 percent growth, they reckon. What's more, that shocking read for Q2 should be revised down because it wasn't actually as bad as the topline number we were given to begin with. Today, consumer confidence is on the rebound. This is according to the Westpac McDermott Miller survey. It's up 5.6 points - to its highest level this year. Still slightly below 100 - which means more are still glass-half empty than full, but it's going in the right direction. As are Seek job ads and as are most of the numbers that move first when a recovery is underway. Now, I say all of this completely aware that we've been here before and fired a blank. We've had many a false dawn and false start. But barring any major cock-ups, this recovery feels like its real and happening. The missing ingredient of course is house prices, which are either sideways or backwards for most regions. That's the liquor in your Irish coffee that really gets things moving on the economic front. But this recovery will happen without it. It won't be soaring property prices that give birth this recovery, it won't start in an auction room with the hammer going down on a $44 million two-beddy in Sandringham. What's going to drive this recovery, and make it a very gradual one, is confidence in our agricultural exporters, our lower mortgage rates, and, I think - more than anything - a feeling that we're just sick of being in this position. The ironic truth of it is that in order to get us out of the malaise, we must spend money, rather than save it. We must go out and buy stuff. So this Christmas, take that confidence to your nearest shopping mall. Tonight, I'm doing exactly that. Westfield is open till 10pm. I've found a tent, I've been eyeing it up today, and I'm ready to push play on summer and on spending and an economic Christmas miracle. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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