National Accounts

Figures released yesterday show the Aust. economy enjoyed good but not great growth in the March Qtr. Monetary tightening and the end of govt grants are having an impact. Growth was 0.5% Mch qtr after 1.1% growth in Dec (revised up from 0.9%). Annual growth slowed from 2.8% to 2.7%.

The public sector understandably made a big contribution of 0.7 percentage points followed by household consumption (+0.3) and inventories (0.2). Business investment was -ve (-0.6) and net exports (-0.5)