A huge week for data and events looms, with the RBA Board meeting all but certain to leave official interest rates unchanged.
More important for markets and economists will be the release of the national accounts which will include the GDP data up to the June quarter. The consensus forecast is for GDP growth of around 0.7 per cent for the quarter which will see annual GDP growth of 1.9 per cent. If these forecasts are broadly correct, it will confirm a still sub-standard growth rate for the economy which helps to explain the low inflation / low wages conundrum. While there is a debate about what the trend pace of GDP growth is in the post crisis environment, is has been rare for the economy to growth at 3 per cent or more. Next week’s result is likely to add another quarter to this soft growth performance.
Source: RBA
