Australia's GDP rose 0.2 per cent in the third quarter and 2.7 per cent from the year-earlier period, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.

The data was lower than expected. Economist on average had expected that GDP had risen 0.4 per cent on a quarterly basis and 3.4 per cent from a year earlier.

The growth was driven by a 0.6 per cent increase in household expenditure and a 0.9 per cent increase in gross fixed capital expenditure. This growth was partially offset by a strong fall in net exports, the fall in net exports was due to a 2.4 per cent fall in exports and a 0.5 per cent fall in imports.

The industry that drove growth in the September quarter was agriculture, forestry and fishing with an 18.5 per cent increase in seasonally adjusted volume terms driven by strong crop forecasts.

The Australian dollar fell after the disappointing 3Q GDP Data. The local unit was sold off nearly half a US cent from above 0.9600.