Australia’s Economic Growth Stays Tepid in Challenge for RBA
- Currency falls as traders boost bets on April rate reduction
- Government spending is now a key driver of economic growth
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Australia’s economic growth remained sluggish last quarter as a surge in government spending underpinned the expansion, highlighting the Reserve Bank’s policy challenge as inflation is still stubbornly sticky.
Gross domestic product rose 0.8% from a year earlier, the weakest reading — excluding the pandemic — since December 1991, when the economy was mired in recession, official data showed Wednesday. On a per capita basis, GDP slid for a seventh consecutive quarter, also the worst result since 1991.