Economic growth accelerates, fuelling rate hike fears
Jacob Shteyman |
Australia’s economy grew at 0.8 per cent in the December quarter, the fastest rate in three years and above Reserve Bank forecasts.
The central bank had expected the nation’s gross domestic product to expand 2.3 per cent over 2025.
But figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed the economy grew by 2.6 per cent over the year, the fastest annual growth rate since March 2023.
Annual growth was up from 2.1 per cent in September.
The result will do little to dampen RBA concerns about inflation, given it estimates the economy cannot grow faster than about two per cent annually without adding to price pressures thanks in part to Australia’s weak productivity growth.
Productivity as measured by GDP per hour worked grew one per cent over the year.
Ahead of the release, bond traders were pricing in the chance of a rate hike on March 17 at about a third after hawkish comments by RBA governor Michele Bullock that the meeting would be “live”.
Real unit labour costs – a key input for businesses and a figure watched closely by the RBA – eased 0.6 per cent over the quarter after falling 0.2 per cent in September.
ABS head of national accounts Grace Kim said economic growth was broad-based over the quarter, with rises across a large majority of industries.
“Public and private demand each contributed 0.3 percentage points to GDP growth,” she said.
On a per-capita basis, the economy grew by 0.4 per cent over the quarter.
Economists had revised up their GDP growth predictions on Tuesday after stronger-than-expected public demand figures, driven by a spike in defence spending and investment by federal public corporations.
Commonwealth investment rose 3.3 per cent, while state and local government investment grew 1.4 per cent, driven by transport infrastructure.
AAP