Pantone’s colour for 2023 signals confidence and optimism
Be prepared to see this shade of stunning red everywhere next year
< 1 min
Paint company and international arbiters of colour, Pantone, have announced the 2023 Colour of the Year – and it’s a sumptuous shade of red.
The deep hue, Viva Magenta is a bold choice, designed to challenge and invigorate as the world powers out of almost three years of uncertainty and anxiety.
Describing it as ‘a new vision’, Pantone’s Twitter account said Viva Magenta was “vibrating with vim and vigour, a shade rooted in nature descending from the red family demonstrating a new signal of strength”.
It’s a dramatic departure from the choice for 2022, Veri Peri, a mix of lavender and blue, reflecting a desire for reassurance.
Instead, Viva Magenta, which has both warm and cool tones, represents “a brave and fearless carmine red imbued with dynamic presence, invigorating experimentation, and an emboldened desire for self-expression”.
The Colour of the Year is a colour forecast and can influence everything from fashion and homewares to cake decorating and hair colours.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
Excluding the Covid-19 pandemic period, annual growth was the lowest since 1992
2 min
Australia’s commodity-rich economy recorded its weakest growth momentum since the early 1990s in the second quarter, as consumers and businesses continued to feel the impact of high interest rates, with little expectation of a reprieve from the Reserve Bank of Australia in the near term.
The economy grew 0.2% in the second quarter from the first, with annual growth running at 1.0%, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. The results were in line with market expectations.
It was the 11th consecutive quarter of growth, although the economy slowed sharply over the year to June 30, the ABS said.
Excluding the Covid-19 pandemic period, annual growth was the lowest since 1992, the year that included a gradual recovery from a recession in 1991.
The economy remained in a deep per capita recession, with gross domestic product per capita falling 0.4% from the previous quarter, a sixth consecutive quarterly fall, the ABS said.
A big area of weakness in the economy was household spending, which fell 0.2% from the first quarter, detracting 0.1 percentage point from GDP growth.
On a yearly basis, consumption growth came in at just 0.5% in the second quarter, well below the 1.1% figure the RBA had expected, and was broad-based.
The soft growth report comes as the RBA continues to warn that inflation remains stubbornly high, ruling out near-term interest-rate cuts.
RBA Gov. Michele Bullock said last month that near-term rate cuts aren’t being considered.
Money markets have priced in a cut at the end of this year, while most economists expect that the RBA will stand pat until early 2025.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned this week that high interest rates are “smashing the economy.”
Still, with income tax cuts delivered at the start of July, there are some expectations that consumers will be in a better position to spend in the third quarter, reviving the economy to some degree.
“Output has now grown at 0.2% for three consecutive quarters now. That leaves little doubt that the economy is growing well below potential,” said Abhijit Surya, economist at Capital Economics.
“But if activity does continue to disappoint, the RBA could well cut interest rates sooner,” Surya added.
Government spending rose 1.4% over the quarter, due in part to strength in social-benefits programs for health services, the ABS said.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
