15 Dec 2014

Economists more pessimistic on growth

5:50 am on 15 December 2014

Economists, on average, are expecting the economy grew slightly slower in the September quarter than the Reserve Bank has forecast.

A survey by Bloomberg shows the economists expect Thursday's figures will show growth of 0.7 percent, compared with the central bank's 0.9 percent forecast.

Those figures are up from 0.5 percent growth in the June quarter.

Westpac economist Michael Gordon, who is predicting 0.8 percent growth, said growth through the current upturn had been reasonably widespread.

He said in the June quarter, there was a reported drop in milk production but that has since reversed and there was a strong pick-up in seasonally adjusted terms.

Economists are expecting this week's figures to reflect falling dairy prices, with the current account deficit widening to 2.8 percent of economic growth, up from the 2.5 percent deficit shown in the June quarter.

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