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June 6th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Treasurer Wayne Swan says Australia should have a “bounce in its step” after a stunning growth report showing the economy has expanded by its fastest annual pace in more than four years.
Strong household spending and business investment helped the economy rise by a seasonally adjusted 1.3 per cent in the first three months of 2012, more than double the pace economists had expected.
It was also more than twice the growth rate seen in the final quarter of 2011, which was upgraded to 0.6 per cent.
The annual growth rate soared to a heady 4.3 per cent, which was further helped by the passing through the data of the negative impact of natural disasters in 2011.
“What a stunning set of figures,” Mr Swan told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
“I think these figures send the loudest possible message to the world that Australia is the strongest performing developed economy bar none.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the main contributors to quarterly growth were household consumption, which added 0.9 percentage points to gross domestic product (GDP), and private investment, which contributed by 0.8 percentage points.
However, net exports – or exports minus imports – trimmed 0.5 percentage points from GDP.
While conceding not all parts of the economy were booming, Mr Swan said half a trillion dollars of business investment in the pipeline would provide an anchor in the face of global uncertainty.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the data proved the “doomsayers and sceptics” wrong.
“It is truly remarkable, at a time when European nations are going backwards and many nations are really staggering to try to put one foot in front of the other when it comes to growth, that we are surging ahead,” she told reporters in Sydney.
The unexpected growth surge in the national accounts data came just 24 hours after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut the official cash rate for the second month in a row.
RBA Governor Glenn Stevens on Tuesday announced a cut in the official cash rate of 25 basis points to 3.5 per cent, saying the board was concerned about developments in Europe.
The four major banks – ANZ Bank, Commonwealth, National Australia Bank and Westpac – have yet to announce their response to the latest rate reduction, having only partially passed on the 50-basis-point cut in May.
Mr Swan said he did not believe the major banks when they say they cannot afford to pass on the latest official rate cut.
He said the banks’ offshore borrowing costs or the cost of domestic deposits were not valid excuses for them to withhold a cut.
He acknowledged there was vulnerability with offshore funding, but most of the banks had secured funding for “some time now”.
“Of course they would argue that the cost of their domestic deposits has gone up … I just don’t believe it is justified,” he told Network Ten earlier on Wednesday.
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