Australia - The Shane Watson economy: The Australian economy is like cricketer Shane Watson - looks pretty good most of the time, occasionally inspires with a...

Australia - The Shane Watson economy: The Australian economy is like cricketer Shane Watson - looks pretty good most of the time, occasionally inspires with a terrific performance, but then falls short of what is required when the going gets tough. The performance is not so bad as to give up with a downgrade or capitulation exit, but it is frustrating nonetheless to watch month after month generally disappointing results. The GDP result today locked in two and a quarter years where real growth has been below trend. Real GDP rose 2.5 per cent in the year to the December quarter 2014 meaning that for the last nine quarters, annual GDP growth has been stuck between 1.9 and 3.0 per cent with an average growth rate of a miserable 2.4 per cent. The long run trend growth rate for Australia is around 3.2 per cent which means that the economy could have grown almost 1 percentage point faster for the last two years without there being any threat of rising inflation. For more details, click here: (VIEW LINK)