Australia's economic growth is expected to recover from its multi-decade lows when gross domestic product figures are revealed in the nation's quarterly health check.
The national accounts for December, due from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, are expected to show the economy accelerated from the 0.8 per cent annual growth rate recorded in the three months to September.
That was the weakest result since the 1990-91 recession, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic.
The market is expecting the quarterly growth rate to pick up from 0.3 per cent to 0.5 per cent, which would mean the economy grew by 1.2 per cent in 2024 - still well below the yearly average of more than 3.0 per cent recorded since the 1960s.
Economists had downgraded their forecasts after capital expenditure unexpectedly shrank 0.2 per cent in the December quarter, defying consensus predictions of a 0.5 per cent increase.
An especially weak outcome for plant and equipment investment prompted JP Morgan's Tom Kennedy to trim his forecast for gross domestic product, or output, growth.
Firms' forward-looking estimates of capital expenditure were also significantly softer than expectations, posing "a potential headwind for near-term GDP growth".
Constraining economic growth in recent years and decades has been sluggish productivity growth.
Labour productivity fell during the past two quarters and Westpac senior economist Pat Bustamante expects it to show a decline of 1.25 per cent for the calendar year, with a 2.5 per cent increase in hours worked outpacing output.
"While the aggregate performance has been poor, it has been driven by the expansion of the non-market sector and mining," he said.
"How the non-mining market sector is performing has more direct relevance for prices and costs pressures."
The Reserve Bank will be closely watching the change in labour costs, which "provide a medium-term anchor for domestically-driven inflation pressures", Mr Bustamante said.
Also in focus among a bumper week for economic news will be the RBA board's minutes from its February meeting, when it decided to cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years.
Analysts will scour the minutes on Tuesday for any clues as to when the board might be tempted to cut rates again before they tune into another speech by deputy governor Andrew Hauser at the Australian Financial Review Business Summit in Sydney on Wednesday.
The strength of the housing market will also be on show.
Property data firm CoreLogic will reveal whether the downturn in the housing market in the past three months continued in February in its monthly home value index on Monday.
Meanwhile, building approval figures released by the bureau on Thursday will show whether the construction sector is getting any closer to reaching the government's ambitious target of 1.2 million new homes across five years.
Further insight into the strength of the economy will come via business profit and inventory data on Monday, retail trade figures on Tuesday, international trade on Thursday and household spending on Friday.
The health of the government's finances will also be on show on Tuesday, with the market anticipating a current account deficit of $13.4 billion.
Elsewhere, the Australian stock market is expected to open higher on Monday after Wall Street jumped on Friday on the back of a rally in the tech sector and new inflation data that was in line with expectations.
The US S&P 500 climbed 1.59 per cent to end the session at 5,954.50 points, the Nasdaq gained 1.63 per cent to 18,847.28 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.39 per cent to 43,840.91 points.
During weekend trading, the Australian ASX SPI200 index futures contract rose 48 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 8180 points, setting the scene for a bump when the local trading week begins.
On Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 1.16 per cent to 8,172.4 while the broader All Ordinaries fell 1.2 per cent to 8,403.9.
