It's going to be another underwhelming year for the Australian economy this year, still suffering a hangover at the end of a once-in-150-year mining boom.

Adding to the bad news - especially for borrowers - is that another interest rate cut is unlikely as economic growth stays at a lukewarm pace, but not cold enough to cause much concern.

JP Morgan chief economist Stephen Walters said that investment outside the mining sector will only improve slowly and retail spending will only modestly pick up pace.

"Growth is rotating toward more non-mining sources, but only slowly, which helps to explain why gross domestic product (GDP) growth was below trend again in 2015, and likely will only just hit potential next year," he said.

"With Australia's economy undergoing a multi-year adjustment, another year of modestly sub-trend growth would be a fairly solid outcome."

Mr Walters said economic growth in 2015 came in below expectations - he originally projected 2.9 per cent growth for the calendar year but instead it looks like it will be closer to 2.3 per cent.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics won't release December quarter GDP figures until March 2.

JP Morgan is forecasting growth of 2.7 per cent by the end of 2016 and 2.8 per cent in 2017, helped by higher mining export volumes and a slight acceleration in consumer spending.

In its mid-year budget update in December, Treasury revised down its 2015/16 economic growth forecast to 2.5 per cent, from the 2.75 per cent forecast at the time of the May budget.

In 2015, the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point in February and again in May to a record low of two per cent.

Mr Walters, along with many economists believes that an interest rate reduction is highly unlikely in 2016.

He said the RBA preferred the much lower Australian dollar to do the heavy lifting by making locally produced goods and services more competitive with imports, something that has already been evident in the manufacturing sector.

The Aussie dollar has lost 40 US cents since it hit a post-float peak of 110.81 US cents in July 2011 at the height of the mining boom.

"We suspect officials still believe it risky to lower the cash rate amid a still-strong housing market," Mr Walters said.

"Finally, we believe officials are not convinced a lower cash rate would address the economy's core problem, the lack of investment outside mining."

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Economy in for another sluggish year