Australian economy records 25 years without recession

The Australian economy expanded at its fastest annual pace in four years in the last quarter. The development marks a remarkable  

25-year run without recession as exports surged and more than made up for patchy domestic performance.

The local dollar continued to hold firm at US $0.7662 after news came out of the GDP having increased 3.3 per cent in the year to June, increasing from around 2.9 per cent in the previous quarter.

The value of all goods and services was up 0.5 per cent as against the first quarter, when output was up by an unusually strong 1 per cent.

A pre-election spurt in government spending lifted growth in the quarter, which added to the modest gains from household spending and home building. This helped offset another steep decline in mining investment, which had acted as a drag on the economy for over three years now.

The year as a whole saw the biggest contribution to growth from international trade, with the hundreds of billions spent on mining projects, yielding a bonanza by way of resource exports.

Trade contributed to less than 2.2 percentage points of growth in the year to June.

Hailing the result, Scott Morrison, said it was a  ''tribute to every Australian who has gone out there, gone to work, got a job, that is running or has started a business''.

According to commentators, the figures showed that growth in the June quarter had halved to 0.5 per cent as against the March quarter. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics consumer and government spending were propping up other areas of the economy.

''Growth in the June quarter was driven by domestic final demand, which rose 0.6%, supported by ongoing growth in household and public consumption,'' the ABS said.