Australia in lower growth phase

2012-05-06

The Reserve Bank of Australia has lowered the country's growth forecast.

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Following an earlier projection of 3.5%, bank analysts have now downgraded the figure to 3%.

There has been a slowdown in the country's non-mining sectors and a rising Australian dollar, which has hurt the competitiveness of Australia's exports, creating problems for the manufacturing sector.

The Australian dollar has risen almost 7% against the US dollar since August last year.

Strong exports of Australia's natural resources have also been slowed recently with a weakening in global demand.

In announcing the slowdown, the Reserve Bank said: "The most significant external risk to this outlook is the possibility that the sovereign debt problems in Europe could intensify and derail the upswing in the global economy."

Source: Economics Industry News.Net