Australia GDP growth beats f’cast, back to pre-pandemic time

Australia’s economy extended its rapid recovery in the first quarter as consumers and businesses spent with abandon, lifting output back above where it was last year when pandemic lockdowns tipped the country into recession.

The economy expanded by a real 1.8% in the three months to March, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed. Economists in a Reuters poll had forecast a 1.5% rise following an upwardly revised 3.2% gain in the fourth…