Canberra, Jun 13 (IANS): Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the country needs to seize development opportunities to weather the global economic headwinds.

"Advanced economies around the world are dealing with the very difficult combination of high inflation and rising interest rates," he said in a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia's State of the Nation conference in Canberra,

The Prime Minister added that he remained optimistic that Australia can emerge from the period of global economic challenges in a stronger position.

He emphasised that breaking new ground was critical to maintain economic growth, and identified clean energy transition, new technologies, and the growing care and support sector as major opportunities.

"We know Australia can't afford to just wait and watch and react to the clean energy transformation, the growth of the care and support economy, or breakthroughs in technology. We have to seize these opportunities," he said.

National accounts data released earlier in June revealed Australia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.2 per cent in the first three months of 2023 and was up 2.3 per cent in the 12 months to the end of March, the slowest quarterly growth since September 2021.

The data has prompted concerns that the country is headed for a recession following 12 interest rate rises in 13 months.

Despite slower than forecast GDP growth, a Guardian poll published on Tuesday found that more voters trust Albanese's governing Labor Party to manage the cost of living, rising interest rates and soaring debt than the Coalition.