Pandemic blows hole in Australia population goal but migration recovering

FILE PHOTO: Commuters walk in the Central Business District at lunch time in Sydney June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The COVID pandemic has blown a million-person hole in Australia's population projections in a challenge for an economy that has relied on having more consumers to drive growth, though a speedy recovery in migration promises to soften the blow.

Data in the government's 2022 Population Statement out on Friday also showed COVID-19 lowered life expectancy for the first time in decades, though the impact in Australia was modest compared to many of its developed world peers.