Wednesday, 1 March 2017

Boom time?

According to figures just released, Australia's quarterly and annual GDP growth shows remarkable resilience. In the December quarter, the growth rate reached a massive 1.1% (c. 4.5% annualised), while the actual annual rate was a more modest 2.4%. Even that annual rate was higher than in most of the world's developed economies. Those figures also mean that Australia has now had something like 25 continuous years without a formal recession (two continuous quarters of negative growth), which is an impressive track record. The numbers just quoted were also much better than economists' guesstimates, possibly reflecting (i) higher prices for mineral and agricultural exports, (ii)  fairly good seasonal conditions in many parts of the country and (iii) strengthening in-bound tourism.

AS

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