3 March 2011 - This note looks at the just-concluded December half-yearly profit reporting season in Australia in the context of the Australian economy generally.
The key points are as follows:
- The Australian December half-yearly profit reporting season was better than expected, though it did reinforce the picture of a three-speed patchy economy. A similar picture was provided by December quarter gross domestic product data which came in better than expected, with growth of 0.7% in the quarter (2.7% over the last year) but with very soft private demand growth of just 1.6% last year.
- Expect solid economic growth from the June quarter to drive profit growth of around 15% over the year ahead, led by the mining and banking sectors with industrials (excluding banks) returning to high single-digit growth.
