A global credit rating agency has given Australia a pat on the back for its latest economic growth figures, saying they compare favourably with many of the country's triple-A rated peers.
The latest national accounts show the economy grew by a solid 0.9 per cent in the September quarter, a marked rebound from the upwardly revised, but still disappointing, 0.3 per cent growth in the previous three months.
However, it left annual growth at 2.5 per cent and shy of the 2.75 per cent that Treasury now considers as Australia's potential growth rate over the next couple of years.
Even so, Moody's Investors Service associate managing director Atsi Sheth said the result demonstrates Australia's economic resilience to low commodity prices, falling capital spending and China's economic slowdown.
"Nonetheless ... maintaining Australia's relatively strong growth rates will be challenging in coming years," he said in a statement.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said the transition to broader-based growth was underway.
"The sheer scale of the resource boom means that this transition will take time and there will be challenges," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
The key drivers of economic growth in the September quarter were household consumption and housing construction.
But exports were the star performer, adding 1.5 percentage points to growth and rebounding after being hit by weather-related port closures in the June quarter.
These more than offset a sharp fall in business investment.
"There are positive signs of a strengthening economy," Mr Morrison said.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen noted the welcome expansion in the economy occurred when Joe Hockey was treasurer.
"This is not something that Mr Morrison can be claiming credit for," he told reporters.
Mr Hockey, who is no longer in parliament, tweeted that the numbers were "very, very pleasing" but Reserve Bank governor Glenn Steven didn't want to overplay the significance of one set of figures.
"The economy is growing and I think that the outlook for continued moderate growth - you would still say that's the outlook based on this incremental bit of additional information," he told a business function in Perth.
The central bank left the cash rate unchanged at a record two per cent low at its final board meeting of the year on Tuesday.
David Lane, a director of business advisers Pitcher Partners, said the growth figures justified the RBA's decision.
However, he said early indications were for a healthy Christmas retail spending season.
"The recent improvement in property prices, a stable labour market and healthy GDP all provide consumers with confidence to spend," he told AAP.
