Australia's economy took a beating from the floods that quelled exports causing its gross domestic product to fall 1.2 percent from the previous three months, when it rose a revised 0.8 percent, reports said.

According to the Australia Bureau of Statistics, the economy shrank by 1.2 percent in the first three months of the year and dragged down by commodities exports caused by the Queensland floods

The country's top economists have agreed that the sharp decline in commodity export volumes as indicated in the balance of payments released on Monday were still the lingering effects of the Queensland floods and Cyclone Yassi and slowed down coal, coke, and briquette exports.

The National Australia Bank said in an emailed statement that according to their special flood survey in late January, the large negative impact on national GDP was larger than anticipated.

"As a result, NAB has revised its forecast for March quarter GDP growth to negative 1 ¼ percent," group chief economist Alan Oster said in an email.

In a related report of Sydney Morning Herald, estimates of the March quarter national accounts figure turned sharply negative. The median forecast among market economists changed from a 0.4 per cent contraction in the economy to a 1.1 percent contraction - which would be the worst quarterly figure since the early 1990s recession.

The ANZ and Commonwealth banks are forecasting a GDP figure of minus 1.5 percent, Westpac minus 1.0 percent, and the National Australia Bank minus 0.3 percent.

Treasurer Wayne Swan was almost apologetic in Parliament over the export figures, saying the impact of the January natural disasters had been ''somewhat larger than the Treasury initially estimated."

NAB's Mr Oster said that this new development would likely prompt the Reserve Bank of Australia to hold back to a next benchmark rate increase.

"A very poor GDP reading will make it more difficult for the Board to acquiesce in a rate rise, despite the enthusiasm of officials to pre-empt emerging inflationary pressures," he added.