http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/10191565/be-proud-ec-president-tells-...

Australians may take it for granted, but a top European bureaucrat believes the nation should be proud of avoiding the global recession that hit the rest of the developed world.

New data released on Monday suggested that Wednesday's national accounts will show the economy has again avoided recession, after the summer of natural disasters that hit growth so hard in the first three months of the year.

Visiting European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Australia was the only developed country to have escaped the recession that followed the global financial crisis.

"That is a reality. You should be proud of that in Australia," Mr Barroso told reporters in Canberra after talks with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Mr Barroso, who stopped off in Australia en route to New Zealand for the Pacific Islands Forum, does not believe Europe will sink into recession again as a result of its sovereign debt crisis.

"The latest forecast by the European Commission shows that there will be growth, modest growth it is true, but even across the European Union," he said.

He said it would be premature to say whether Greece, one of the countries at the centre of the debt crisis, was conforming with its bail-out package, but both the European Union and the euro were "strong and resilient".

"We are doing all it takes, from tackling the underlying budget problems to strengthening the governance of the eurozone, from tighter financial regulation to improving our overall competitiveness," he said.

Local markets are pricing in 75 basis points worth of interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank before the end of the year on the fear of another global downturn because of Europe's debt problems, as well as weak US job numbers.

Economists expect the central bank will leave the cash rate unchanged at 4.75 per cent after Tuesday's monthly board meeting, the level it has stood at since November last year.

New data reinforced expectations that Wednesday's national accounts will show the economy made a solid recovery in the June quarter, having suffered its worst performance in two decades in the previous three months because of the summer floods and cyclone.

Company profits surged by 6.7 per cent in the June quarter, over double the growth forecast by economists, and bolstered by a 15.2 per cent jump in mining profits.

Business inventories - stock on shelf and in warehouses - also grew by a much larger than expected 2.5 per cent.

National Australia Bank upgraded its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for the June quarter to 1.3 per cent growth from 0.9 per cent before the data, which will follow a sharp 1.2 per cent decline in the March quarter.

Although economists will make their final GDP predictions after Tuesday's exports and government spending data are released, it looks likely the economy has avoided a technical recession, defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Still, more up-to-date data showed the economy was going through a soft patch with job advertisements falling for a second consecutive month in August, declining 0.6 per cent.

Official labour force data is released on Thursday.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data showed August vehicle sales rose by 7.3 per cent compared with a year before, putting the industry on track for sales of one million over the year.

 

We don't call you Spaqqa for nothing, you fricking spastic front bottom! 

maqqa - that is quite disturbing.
You have set a trap an inbicilic chimpanazee would NEVER walk into.

And a few lefties raced into it.



really, that's a bit disturbing you would set such a blatent trap.
I thought, "have you lost it?"
then the letys jump in completely setting it off.

you are a genius