Email

Fewer visits to GPs as economy slows

Posted December 4, 2008 07:21:00

Economists say there is evidence that Australians are cutting back on trips to the doctor as the economy slows.

Yesterday official figures showed the economy just escaped negative growth in the September quarter, with growth of 0.1 per cent.

CommSec chief economist Craig James says consumer spending is growing at its slowest annual rate in 15 years.

He says fewer people are visiting doctors and are instead going straight to chemists to buy drugs to treat medical conditions.

"It's quite an interesting trend we've got at the moment, less people are visiting doctors and more people are visiting chemists," he said.

"In fact visits to the doctor are down almost 14 per cent when compared with a year ago, while spending at pharmacies is up over 19 per cent over the past year.

Spending on gambling posted its biggest annual drop in two decades, economists say.

Mr James says unpublished figures from the Bureau of Statistics show gambling expenditure fell by just over 11 per cent during the past year.

"Usually you would expect Australians to continue to gamble no matter what the economy is doing, but it's times like this when conventions are thrown out the door," he said.

Tags: business-economics-and-finance, economic-trends, community-and-society, gambling, health, doctors-and-medical-professionals, international-financial-crisis, australia