Treasurer Jim Chalmers is speaking after the release of the latest national accounts data, spruiking the growth of the private sector amid continued criticism from the government over the level of demand from the public sector.
“Economic growth was driven by strong growth in business investment, solid consumption, and also ongoing growth in dwelling investment. If you look at these numbers, you can see that new public final demand made almost no contribution to quarterly GDP growth, so all of the growth in the quarter is coming from the private sector,” Chalmers said.
The Australian economy expanded by 0.3 per cent through the first three months, driven by consumer spending and businesses rolling out data centres to harness the AI revolution. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported this morning that the lift, in line with market expectations, meant annual growth eased slightly from 2.6 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
“The big driver of that private sector growth is growth in business investment. Annual growth in Australia is faster than almost every major advanced economy, and it’s above the OECD average,” Chalmers said.
“The biggest contributor was business investment. We saw the fastest quarterly growth in business investment in nearly a decade and a half. New business investment grew 5.7 per cent in the quarter to be 10.4 per cent higher through the year. It contributed 0.7 percentage points to quarterly growth.”
