Australia’s economy limps along, but the RBA should take a closer look before raising interest rates again

‘No one is going to be building a cafe near a datacentre to capture all the business it will bring in. Much of the “business” of datacentres will occur in other countries, and much of the profits will go there as well.’ Photograph: Steve Christo/Corbis/Getty Images

When the Bureau of Statistics released the GDP figures on Wednesday, the June quarter 0.4% growth figure immediately drew headlines of a rate rise to come, but there is little within the GDP figures that suggests an economy needing slowing.

Before the release, the average expectation from banking economists and those throwing a dart at a board was that the economy in June would grow by 0.3%. In the end it grew 0.4% and brought out the suggestions that the growth was “above expectations” and thus in some way hot and in need of cooling off by another interest rate rise.