Record federal government spending is making it harder for the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates and pouring resources into unproductive parts of the economy, leading economists have warned as new growth figures put more pressure on Labor over its handling of the nation’s finances.

Key growth data on Wednesday showed the economy was being propped up by a surge in recurrent state and federal government spending on public servant wages and ballooning social programs, which was the main driver of the paltry 0.2 per cent increase in gross domestic product in the June quarter.