The Australian economy barely grew in the first three months of the year, rising just 0.1 per cent amid expectations from top officials growth would be “very weak”.
The tiny increase is the lowest quarterly growth since December 2020 and economic growth per capita has fallen for the fifth consecutive quarter.
Spending by governments and by households on essentials rose, the latter driven by electricity, health, rent and food, the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday reported.
Economists had expected a quarterly increase of 0.2 per cent.
Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock earlier on Wednesday said the economy was “very weak” and there was a prospect of no growth at all over the quarter.
On an annual basis, GDP rose just 1.1 per cent to March 31.
More to come…