League of our own

Australian economy top of the leaderboard, says Treasurer

TREASURER Scott Morrison yesterday said he hoped the NSW Blues had as decent a result in last night’s State of Origin opener as the Australian economy.

Annual economic growth soared to its highest level in almost two years, buoyed by a rebound in exports in the first three months of 2018, after a subdued end to 2017.

The economy grew by 1.0 per cent in the March quarter, the national accounts report released yesterday showed, which was double the rate of the increase in the December quarter.

This lifted the annual growth rate to 3.1 per cent – faster than most economists had predicted.

“I’m hoping that this evening the Blues will get as decent result as the Australian economy has been given in these national accounts today – apologies to Queenslanders listening,” Mr Morrison said in Canberra yesterday.

The Treasurer said Australia’s growth was above the OECD average and better than all the G7 nations.

“Australia has climbed back to the top of the leaderboard,” he said. The growth was also broadly based, with an “encouraging trend” in non-mining and business investment, including extra machinery, equipment and commercial vehicle sales.

“Every time an Australian sees a ute with a phone number on the side, that’s the sign of a stronger economy,” Mr Morrison said.

Looking ahead, the Treasurer said the health and medical sectors, defence industries and manufacturing would contribute to growth.

“They won’t be as employment-intensive as they were before, but they will be profitintensive,” he said.

A rise in average compensation per employee in the private sector was helping the economy, but Mr Morrison said consumption could be boosted further by the Parliament passing income tax cuts.