Schools program that delivered half the value for twice the cost.
What will be the prop going forward??
Mining sector investment to speed up recovery from slowdown
THE Australian economy grew at a much slower pace in the first quarter than at the end of last year as the withdrawal of Kevin Rudd's economic stimulus to combat the GFC, surprising weakness in business investment and sluggish growth in export volumes took some of the steam out of activity.
But economists say the moderation in the $1.2 trillion economy will be short-lived as firms continue to plan significant investment, especially in the mining sector, while a substantial upswing in commodity prices is already washing through the economy.
The average measure of gross domestic product rose 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 from the fourth quarter 2009 and rose 2.7 per cent from the same period 12 months ago, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.
Economists expected that GDP rose 0.4 per cent on a quarterly basis and rose 2.4 per cent from a year earlier.
Significantly, the bureau revised fourth-quarter GDP growth to 1.1 per cent from 0.9 per cent, highlighting a stunning pace of growth through 2009 despite the bleak global backdrop. Economists said it highlights Australia's fortune in being closely linked with Asia, especially China.
The main prop for the economy in the first quarter was the government's national school's spending program, which added 0.9 percentage points to GDP. Consumer demand held up, despite the impact of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
