Recent figures show economy still dodging recession bullet
Thu Aug 6 03:29:13 EST 2009
Figures released this week provide fair hope that Australia's dodged the recession bullet again in the June quarter.
The average rule of thumb is that a recession is confirmed by two consecutive quarters of contracting real gross domestic product.
Australia's GDP expanded by 0.4 per cent in the March quarter and is now expected to have recorded a positive figure again when the national accounts are released on September 2.
However .. some information already available is an indicator of what can be expected .. with yesterday's retail trade data showing a two per cent rise .. implying a boost of nearly half a percentage point to GDP growth.
Another indicator that the economy is faring better than first feared are yesterday's monthly trade figures .. which show a smaller than expected trade deficit.
