GDP Trend Down to 0.4% In December Quarter

The ABS data shows that in trend terms, GDP increased 0.4% in the December quarter 2014. This gives an annual read of 2.3% in trend terms. We need policy changes to get industry to invest and grow. we cannot rely on household expenditure and property speculation to do the job. This gives weight to lower interest rates further, but only if the property sector can be controlled first.

GDPDec2014Gross value added per hour worked in the market sector grew 0.1% and the Terms of trade fell 1.9%. In seasonally adjusted terms, GDP increased by 0.5% in the December quarter, giving an annual rate of 2.5%. The Terms of trade decreased 1.7%, and Real gross domestic income increased 0.2%.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the main contributors to the increase in expenditure on GDP were Net exports (0.7 percentage points) and Final consumption expenditure (0.6 percentage points). The main detractor was Changes in inventories (-0.6 percentage points).

In seasonally adjusted terms, the main contributors to GDP growth were Construction and Health care and social assistance each contributing 0.1 percentage points to the increase in GDP. The main detractor to growth in GDP was Professional, scientific and technical services (-0.1 percentage points).

Author: Martin North

Martin North is the Principal of Digital Finance Analytics

Leave a Reply