The RBA is upbeat about the economy, but we need a more effective measure than GDP | Greg Jericho

Relying on GDP to decide if we are in a recession is silly, the unemployment rate should be the measure

In the face of the bushfire and the coronavirus, the Reserve Bank has taken a fairly upbeat view of the economy. When announcing that the cash rate would remain at 0.75%, the RBA suggested that the bushfires and the coronavirus would "temporarily weigh on domestic growth" but that overall things were doing OK. With luck this will be the case, but given the speed of events we should make sure we do not wait for GDP growth to determine whether or not we are likely to have a recession.

To be fair to the RBA, the central bank can hardly come out and say things are stuffed and a recession is on the way - that would be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Related: Bushfires and the coronavirus will hit Australia's economy - but they won't knock it out | Greg Jericho