YESTERDAY'S GDP figures are certainly wrong. But for now, we don't know which of its figures are wrong - and so we don't know Australia's real rate of economic growth.

Sorry, but that's the truth.

The figures released yesterday do not add up. They will be heavily revised. Their bottom line could be flipped upside down, turning growth negative.

For now, the Bureau of Statistics estimates that the economy grew by 0.6 per cent in the year to June. Wayne Swan was triumphant yesterday, declaring Australia the only advanced economy to record growth in the past year. An economic gold medal for Australia - and thanks to his stimulus!

Well, what do the figures say? They tell us our gross national expenditure in the June quarter was actually a tad less than a year earlier. The reason our output grew, it says, was that we imported far less of what we consumed - import volumes fell 13 per cent year on year - yet our export volumes held steady, even rising 3 per cent in the first half of 2009! Hmm.