SYDNEY, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Australia has dipped into a per capita recession with new data on Wednesday showing that while the economy expanded over the December quarter, it was not enough to outpace the rate of population growth.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) figures, the country's economy grew 0.2 percent in seasonally adjusted terms during the last three months of 2018, coming in below expectations of a 0.3 percent rise.
With Australia's population increasing at 0.4 percent per quarter, the individual share of GDP per capita actually slid 0.2 percent.
"The economy lost considerable momentum in 2018, slowing from around a 4.0 percent annualized pace in the first half of the year to around a 1.0 percent pace in the second," Westpac Bank Chief Economist Bill Evans said.
"This was centred on housing and the consumer against the backdrop of a further tightening of lending standards and persistent weak wages growth. A negative supply shock from the drought in NSW and surrounds is another negative," Evans said.
With the nation's central bank forecasts on GDP now appearing "bleak", according to Evans, he believes an interest rate cut could be on the agenda sometime in 2019.
"With the residential construction cycle now turning down, business investment mixed, the savings rate now edging up, and house prices and new lending contracting. The RBA is expected to cut the cash rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent in August and follow that up with a second cut of 25 basis points in November, recognising confirmation of persistent below trend growth," Evans said.
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