Australian economy gets investment lift, but consumers squeezed

Sydney

AUSTRALIA'S economy expanded at the fastest annual pace in over a year last quarter thanks to a long-awaited jump in business investment, but worrying weakness in household spending eclipsed the growth outlook. Wednesday's data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6 per cent in the third quarter, slowing from the previous quarter when it rose 0.9 per cent. The result just missed market forecasts of growth of 0.7 per cent for the quarter and nudged the local dollar down a quarter of a cent to US$0.7580.

The annual pace accelerated to 2.8 per cent, from 1.9 per cent and handily outpaced the US at 2.3 per cent.