Growth was 3.7% in the April to June period, from a year earlier. That is down from 4.3% annual growth in the same period last year.

 

Compared with the previous quarter, the economy expanded by 0.6%.

 

There are fears that Australia's growth may slow further as demand for its resources slows.

 

"We are moving into a fairly risky¹ phase of the Australian economy with the mining sector² looking a bit ragged," said Shane Oliver, chief economist³ at AMP Capital Investors⁴.

 

 

Australia's mining sector has been one of the biggest drivers of its growth in recent years.

 

However, slowing growth in key markets such as China and India has hurt demand for Australia's resources and impacted the sector's growth. 

 

To make matters worse, prices of commodities such as iron ore have also fallen in recent months, hurting mine companies' profits.

 

That has forced some companies to put their expansion plans on hold, hurting investment in the economy. 

 

In the past few days, BHP Billiton and Fotescue Metal Group, two of Australia's biggest miners, have announced a delay in expanding their facilities in Australia. 

 

Analysts⁵ said the combination of all these factors was having a negative impact on Australia's growth and that if commodity prices（商品价格） do not improve it may hurt long-term growth.

 

"If the iron ore price stays where it is, then there is a real threat to growth in 2013," said Mr Oliver of AMP Capital.

 

Iron ore prices have fallen almost 30% in just the last two months.

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