Australia joins the exclusive club as the growth peaks before the pandemic

The Australian economy has fully recovered from the Covid-19 downturn, growing by 1.8 per cent in the first three months of 2021 compared to the previous quarter, thanks to a recovery in business investment and iron ore exports.

Better-than-expected growth means the economy is 0.8% bigger than it is now before the coronavirus was first detected in China in 2019, lifting Australia in a selected national team that has grown over the last 15 months.

But economists warned that the slow pace of vaccinations in the country and the outbreak of Covid-19 in Melbourne, which has forced a blockade in the state of Victoria, pose a risk of recovery and would slow growth.

“Australia is a strange company here,” said Kristian Kolding, an economist at Deloitte Access Economics. “Only five other countries can boast of an economy now bigger than a pandemic. And we achieved that goal by keeping Covid numbers almost lower than anywhere else.”

The successful removal of Covid-19 by Australian authorities and stimulating measures boosted business confidence, with private investment up 5.3% in the March quarter.

Business investment rose by 11.6 per cent in machinery and equipment, the highest increase in the December 2009 quarter. Housing investment rose by 6.4% compared to the previous quarter.

Each year, gross domestic product increased by 1.1 percent. Economics grew up 3.2 percent in the December quarter compared to the September quarter.

Australia’s recovery saw an increase in commodity prices, mainly iron ore, with trade conditions – a measure of export prices relative to import prices – rising 7.4 per cent in the first quarter. This brought the nation’s current account surplus to a record $ 18.3 billion ($ 14.2 billion) in the March quarter.

Trade tensions with China have sparked calls for research into the origins of Canberra Covid-19 appearance in Wuhan, have not reduced exports as Beijing is unable to secure an alternative supply of the steel component.

According to research by Deloitte Access Economics, only Australia, China, Chile, Romania, South Korea and Lithuania have been growing their economies since Covid-19 began. On average, the economies of OECD countries, a group of rich countries, were 2.7% lower than before the pandemic, he said.

The virus, however, remains a challenge. On Wednesday, authorities extended Melbourne’s seven-day closure to hold the cluster, while 4.4m of the 40m owners needed to cover the nation’s 25 million inhabitants were administered.

“The relative economic performance of countries will depend on the speed with which they integrate populations,” said Saul Eslake, a member of the University of Tasmania.

“And in that respect, we are behind the UK, the US, Canada and even most of continental Europe. So there is no guarantee that we will stay on top of the package. ”

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