High inflation, rapidly rising interest rates and a record federal government income tax take have driven real incomes to their lowest level in eight years, forcing households to eat into the $237 billion savings buffer built up during the pandemic.

In real terms, gross domestic product expanded just 0.2 per cent in the three months to September, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. The outcome meant the annual rate of GDP growth held steady at 2.1 per cent.