Australia’s economic growth slowed in the September quarter amid restrained consumer spending, data released on Wednesday showed.
Gross domestic product rose just 0.2 per cent from the prior quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected an increase of 0.4 per cent.
The gain was largely due to higher spending on welfare, including on energy rebates and childcare, aged care and pharmaceutical subsidies, while household spending was flat.
Robert Carnell, Asia-Pacific head of research at ING, said the data makes it harder for the central bank to justify further interest rate increases “without some stronger accompanying evidence that the inflation battle is stalling”.