Australian economic growth tumbled in the September quarter, logging the largest contraction seen since the global financial crisis.
According to the ABS, real GDP in seasonally adjusted chained volume terms fell by 0.5%, leaving the year-on year increase at 1.8%.
Markets had been expecting a quarterly decline of 0.1%, leaving the year-on-year growth rate at 2.2%.
It was the largest quarterly decline since Q4 2008, and the slowest year-on-year expansion since Q3 2009
In per capita terms, taking into consideration the increase in Australia’s population, real GDP fell by a larger 0.8%, a factor that may receive more attention than usual given the debate over immigration levels that has flared in recent days.
Like headline GDP, it too was the largest quarterly decline since late 2008.
The ABS said that economic activity contracted in a number of areas during the quarter.
“Private investment in new buildings detracted 0.3 percentage points (ppts) from GDP growth, while new engineering and new and used dwellings detracted 0.2 and 0.1ppts respectively. Public capital expenditure detracted 0.5ppts from growth as it declined from elevated levels in the June quarter. Net exports detracted an additional 0.2ppts from growth,” it said.
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