Thursday, 8 July 2021 Australia’s COVID-19 legacy continues 12 months ago we drew attention to how APRA’s forward-looking approach to regulation had positioned the Australian financial system to function and support the economy in a crisis as deep as that caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Remarkably, the Australian economy is now larger (+0.8% above) than it was pre-pandemic as Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine program gathers momentum. The 1.8%1 economic growth recorded in the March quarter was above market expectations (1.5%) and more than half the Reserve Bank’s 2.8% growth forecast for the entire first half of 2021.