SYDNEY: Australia’s resource-rich economy expanded strongly in the third quarter on the back of a surge in commodity exports, government data Wednesday showed.
Gross domestic product rose by 0.9% in the third quarter from the second, and by 2.5% from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Both figures were in line with economist forecasts. Second-quarter growth was revised upwards to 0.3% from the first quarter, compared with an earlier estimated 0.2% increase.
Following a decadelong boom in mining investment, Australia is now lifting exports of key commodities such as iron ore and natural gas, mainly to Asia. Net exports contributed 1.5 percentage points to GDP growth–mainly due to increased mining activity, which rose by 5.2% in the latest quarter.
Still, there are substantial headwinds for the economy, including ongoing falls in both private and public investment. Engineering construction, which is related mainly to building mining infrastructure, fell by 7.1% in the third quarter.
