Tuesday, March 04, 2014 9:13:13 PM
Australia's GDP figures beat expectations
Date March 5, 2014 84 reading now
Glenda Kwek
Business Reporter
Steady as she goes ... the Australia economy is expected to pick up over the next few years.
Growing: The Australia economy picked up steam in the December quarter. Photo: Tamara Voninski
'Whatever it takes': China sets 7.5% growth target for 2014
http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/whatever-it-takes-china-sets-75-growth-target-for-2014-20140305-346fn.html
Consumers spending more and saving less have helped the Australian economy grow by a stronger than expected rate in the last three months of the year.
The economy grew at a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent in the December quarter, taking the annual growth rate to 2.8 per cent. The quarterly figures were up from a 0.6 per cent expansion in the three months to September.
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Australia's economic growth IMAGE INSIDE
GDP growth in Australia over the past five years (year-on-year rate, seasonally adjusted).
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"There are some positive signs," federal Treasurer Joe Hockey said of the latest GDP figures.
"I remain positive about the outlook for the Australian economy and the trends revealed today [show] we are headed in the right direction."
The Australian dollar jumped nearly half a cent on the back of the stronger-than-expected figures to trade as high as US89.97 cents.
The fourth-quarter growth was driven by a 0.6 per cent boost from net exports and a 0.5 per cent contribution from consumption. A 0.3 per cent fall in investment offset some of the gains.
"While the wind-back in mining investment expected over the next couple of years will weigh on growth, there are some early signs that other sectors of the economy are starting to pick up," ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett said.
"Housing investment is set to pick up strongly this year, household consumption spending looks to be trending higher, and the outlook for non-mining investment looks to be improving."
Household consumption improved slightly for the period to a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent, while government spending lifted by 0.3 per cent. At the same time, the household savings ratio slipped from its almost decade-highs to 9.7 per cent.
"It did come back a bit," National Australia Bank senior economist David de Garis said of the fall in the household savings ratio.
"Maybe that's a sign that consumers are a little bit less anxious towards the end of last year, but consumer sentiment has come off a bit since then, as we've had a lot of potentially destabilising news on corporate lay-offs."
Mr De Garis added that the figures showed that the domestic economy remained quite soft, with business investment contracting for the quarter.
"Consumer and business spending still remains on the cautious side," he said.
The mining, manufacturing, rental, hiring and property sectors contributed 0.1 per cent to GDP, while the terms of trade - a ratio that measures export prices to import prices - rose by 0.6 per cent.
Economists had tipped the growth rate for the quarter to come in at 0.6 per cent, and for the year-on-year rate to be 2.5 per cent.
A series of indicators released over the past week that feed into the GDP figures have painted a mixed outlook for the economy.
Data released on Tuesday showed that net exports were expected to contribute 0.6 percentage points of growth to fourth-quarter GDP.
At the same time, business investment intentions projections for the 2014-15 reaffirmed expectations of a fall-off in mining firms' spending plans but pointed to a soft outlook for investment by non-resources companies.
Meanwhile, other partial GDP indicators showed reasonably strong growth in businesses' wages and profits.
Economists have said resources exports were expected to driven GDP growth, but that domestic demand remained weak.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australias-gdp-figures-beat-expectations-20140305-346c5.html
.. and yet, STILL, on so many websites you see the message Australia is going into
recession .. LOL, gulp, it's been on for years, yet Australia is still hanging in there ..
Date March 5, 2014 84 reading now
Glenda Kwek
Business Reporter
Steady as she goes ... the Australia economy is expected to pick up over the next few years.
Growing: The Australia economy picked up steam in the December quarter. Photo: Tamara Voninski
'Whatever it takes': China sets 7.5% growth target for 2014
http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/whatever-it-takes-china-sets-75-growth-target-for-2014-20140305-346fn.html
Consumers spending more and saving less have helped the Australian economy grow by a stronger than expected rate in the last three months of the year.
The economy grew at a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent in the December quarter, taking the annual growth rate to 2.8 per cent. The quarterly figures were up from a 0.6 per cent expansion in the three months to September.
---
Australia's economic growth IMAGE INSIDE
GDP growth in Australia over the past five years (year-on-year rate, seasonally adjusted).
---
"There are some positive signs," federal Treasurer Joe Hockey said of the latest GDP figures.
"I remain positive about the outlook for the Australian economy and the trends revealed today [show] we are headed in the right direction."
The Australian dollar jumped nearly half a cent on the back of the stronger-than-expected figures to trade as high as US89.97 cents.
The fourth-quarter growth was driven by a 0.6 per cent boost from net exports and a 0.5 per cent contribution from consumption. A 0.3 per cent fall in investment offset some of the gains.
"While the wind-back in mining investment expected over the next couple of years will weigh on growth, there are some early signs that other sectors of the economy are starting to pick up," ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett said.
"Housing investment is set to pick up strongly this year, household consumption spending looks to be trending higher, and the outlook for non-mining investment looks to be improving."
Household consumption improved slightly for the period to a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent, while government spending lifted by 0.3 per cent. At the same time, the household savings ratio slipped from its almost decade-highs to 9.7 per cent.
"It did come back a bit," National Australia Bank senior economist David de Garis said of the fall in the household savings ratio.
"Maybe that's a sign that consumers are a little bit less anxious towards the end of last year, but consumer sentiment has come off a bit since then, as we've had a lot of potentially destabilising news on corporate lay-offs."
Mr De Garis added that the figures showed that the domestic economy remained quite soft, with business investment contracting for the quarter.
"Consumer and business spending still remains on the cautious side," he said.
The mining, manufacturing, rental, hiring and property sectors contributed 0.1 per cent to GDP, while the terms of trade - a ratio that measures export prices to import prices - rose by 0.6 per cent.
Economists had tipped the growth rate for the quarter to come in at 0.6 per cent, and for the year-on-year rate to be 2.5 per cent.
A series of indicators released over the past week that feed into the GDP figures have painted a mixed outlook for the economy.
Data released on Tuesday showed that net exports were expected to contribute 0.6 percentage points of growth to fourth-quarter GDP.
At the same time, business investment intentions projections for the 2014-15 reaffirmed expectations of a fall-off in mining firms' spending plans but pointed to a soft outlook for investment by non-resources companies.
Meanwhile, other partial GDP indicators showed reasonably strong growth in businesses' wages and profits.
Economists have said resources exports were expected to driven GDP growth, but that domestic demand remained weak.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australias-gdp-figures-beat-expectations-20140305-346c5.html
.. and yet, STILL, on so many websites you see the message Australia is going into
recession .. LOL, gulp, it's been on for years, yet Australia is still hanging in there ..
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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