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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-07 Daily Xml
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State Economy

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (14:42): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the house on recent economic data releases as they relate to the South Australian economy?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:42): I thank the member for Gibson for this question. Of course, the member would know having represented professional workers how important the performance of the economy is for the wellbeing of South Australians.

Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released their latest Australian National Accounts data and the news was good for both the national economy and the South Australian economy. From a national perspective, gross domestic product grew by 0.9 per cent for the June quarter, 3.9 per cent annually. While that has fallen short of the most recent forecasts in the last commonwealth budget, which projected growth of 4.25 per cent, in the face of rising inflation and rising interest rates it is still an impressive performance.

Pleasingly, it has also delivered good news for the performance of the South Australian economy, with the highest quarterly growth in state final demand for the last 12 months in the June quarter—1.5 per cent growth in the June quarter—and it's the first quarter, of course, since the recent state election and the election of the Malinauskas Labor government. This increase in the June quarter has been driven by an increase in household consumption, new business investment, dwelling investment and government consumption as well.

It's interesting that when you look at the state final demand results for the most recent June quarter, according to the NAB Monthly Business Survey, which was also taken straight after the recent state election, there was a boost in business confidence in South Australia by 14 index points upwards—14 index points upwards—immediately after the March state election. These are good news figures and show that not only do economic conditions remain strong and resilient in South Australia but it's particularly pleasing to see them do so following March.

There are other encouraging signs. Retail trade was up 15.6 per cent annually. South Australia's overseas goods exports for the year to June 2022 totalled $14.7 billion, up 15 per cent or $2 billion on the previous 12 months. We also recorded our largest month of overseas goods export value since records began in 1988—$2 billion for the month of June.

Building approvals are up in South Australia by 19 per cent in July. South Australia's domestic visitor economy is back to 97 per cent of 2019 levels, pointing to a nearly complete recovery of that important industry since the pandemic. We continue to record near record-low unemployment and record full-time employment figures. These are really positive statistics about the strength of the South Australian economy.

But we shouldn't be complacent because, as the Premier outlined, with rising inflation and the ratcheting up of the cash rate by the RBA, that is putting extraordinary pressures on households and businesses in a way we haven't seen for many years across the country and also here in South Australia. It makes the challenge absolutely clear at each level of government, national and state, that there needs to be continued support for the domestic and state economies. That is a challenge that we are determined to rise to—continue providing the support to economic growth and jobs that our state needs.

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