Australia in strong position: Cormann

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has talked up Australia's growth performance in a difficult global economy.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has talked up Australia's growth performance ahead of key economic figures.

The national accounts on Wednesday will contain the latest economic growth figures for the March quarter.

At this stage economists are forecasting an expansion of between 0.6 per cent and 0.8 per cent during the quarter.

That would leave the annual rate at 2.6 per cent to 2.8 per cent, below the three per cent rate recorded over 2015.

While not predicting the outcome, Senator Cormann insists that Australian growth is stronger than any of the G7 economies, including the US and Japan, and is double that of Canada.

That's despite significant global economic headwinds, lower world growth and a drop in global prices for Australia's commodity exports.

"If we hadn't made the decisions that we've made in the past, Australia would be in a less strong, less resilient position now," Senator Cormann told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Economists will finalise their forecasts after Monday's March quarter reports for company profits and business inventories and Tuesday's trade and government spending data.

Construction and business investment figures last week proved weak and form part of the gross domestic product calculation.

Treasury and the Reserve Bank have predicted a growth rate of 2.5 per cent for the full 2015/16 financial year ending in June.


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Source: AAP



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