Australia’s GDP for the second quarter of the year grew by 0.9% on a quarterly basis and by 3.6% on an annual basis. This is what emerges from the country’s statistics office, which highlighted how the expansion was supported by higher consumer spending on travel – and therefore by the transport services component – and the hotel sector, as well as by the boom in related profits in the commodity mining market.
“Rising household consumption spending and exports supported growth in the quarter ended June,” said Sean Crick, head of National Accounts division head of statistics, continuing:
“This is the third consecutive quarter of economic growth, following the contraction of the third quarter of 2021, caused by the (Covid variant) Delta”.
The figure was impacted by the unprecedented boom in mining-related profits, which soared nearly 17% to $ 83 billion in the wake of the rally in commodity prices.
Yesterday the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA – central bank of Australia) raised Australia’s key interest rates by 50 basis points for the fourth time in a row to 2.35%.
This is the fifth consecutive monetary tightening since May, when the Australian central bank started the rate hike path, to put a stop to inflation.
In the quarter ending June, Australian inflation grew at an annual rate of 6.1%, well above the central bank RBA’s target of 2% to 3%.