Westpac Bank released the Westpac-Melbourne Institute leading economic index for Australia on late Tuesday evening. The leading economic index decreased 0.3% in December, after a 0.3% drop in November. November's figure was revised down from a 0.2% fall.

"This is another disappointing result. The Index has now been growing below trend for the last eight months. It continues to signal that growth in the Australian economy in the first half of 2016 will be below trend," Westpac's Chief Economist, Bill Evans, said.