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| Australia's economic growth slows in second quarter | Australia's economic growth slows in second quarter |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Australia's economic growth rate slowed in the second quarter amid a drop global demand for its resources and lacklustre domestic consumption. | Australia's economic growth rate slowed in the second quarter amid a drop global demand for its resources and lacklustre domestic consumption. |
| Growth was 3.7% in the April to June period, from a year earlier. That is down from 4.3% annual growth in the same period last year. | Growth was 3.7% in the April to June period, from a year earlier. That is down from 4.3% annual growth in the same period last year. |
| Compared with the previous quarter, the economy expanded by 0.6%. | Compared with the previous quarter, the economy expanded by 0.6%. |
| There are fears that Australia's growth may slow further as demand for its resources slows. | There are fears that Australia's growth may slow further as demand for its resources slows. |
| "We are moving into a fairly risky phase of the Australian economy with the mining sector looking a bit ragged," said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors. | "We are moving into a fairly risky phase of the Australian economy with the mining sector looking a bit ragged," said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors. |
| Mining worries | |
| Australia's mining sector has been one of the biggest drivers of its growth in recent years. | |
| However, slowing growth in key markets such as China and India has hurt demand for Australia's resources and impacted the sector's growth. | |
| To make matters worse, prices of commodities such as iron ore have also fallen in recent months, hurting mine companies' profits. | |
| That has forced some companies to put their expansion plans on hold, hurting investment in the economy. | |
| In the past few days, BHP Billiton and Fotescue Metal Group, two of Australia's biggest miners, have announced a delay in expanding their facilities in Australia. | |
| Analysts said the combination of all these factors was having a negative impact on Australia's growth and that if commodity prices do not improve it may hurt long-term growth. | |
| "If the iron ore price stays where it is, then there is a real threat to growth in 2013," said Mr Oliver of AMP Capital. | |
| Iron ore prices have fallen almost 30% in just the last two months. |