Australia's economy avoided falling into a recession after its economy grew 0.4 per cent during the first three months of 2009.
The growth was helped as the best trade performance in almost half a century slump helped offset in business and housing investment
Australia has fared better than most countries during the financial crisis and its aftermath, but investment remains weak and the prospect of rising jobless numbers means it is not out of the woods yet.
“We've dodged the recession bullet for the time being, but in reality we've had five quarters of sub-trend growth and unemployment has gone up in that period,” said Michael Blythe, chief economist at Commonwealth Bank.
The Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates on hold at 3 per cent yesterday, saying there were signs of improvement and the full impact of its earlier cuts had not come through yet.
Reuters