The Australian economy contracted by 7.0 per cent in the June quarter, confirming the nation is in its first recession in almost 30 years.
Economists expected the national accounts for the June quarter on Wednesday to show an economic contraction of around six per cent, driven by coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns.
This is, by a wide margin, the largest fall in quarterly GDP since records began in 1959.
In the year to June, the economy shrank by 6.3 per cent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported.
In the March quarter, the economy had contracted by 0.3 per cent.
A technical recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Earlier, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Australia had weathered the coronavirus crisis better than most other countries.
"In all of the circumstances, Australia is performing comparatively better than most others," he told reporters in Canberra ahead of the data.
"We are going to have to continue to do everything we can to get ourselves back into the best possible position."
The downturn has already seen the number of people unemployed push past more than one million for the first time.
Treasury has warned a further 400,000 Australians could join the dole queue before Christmas, partly as a result of Victoria's harsh lockdown.
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