Housing cannot grow without mining

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From Miranda Maxwell at Dad’s Army:

Economists I sounded out this week were in furious agreement: the importance of mining and China to Australia’s economic performance has been significantly overstated.

…Mining makes up less than a fifth of Australia’s GDP, probably closer to 15 per cent as commodity prices decline. Consumer spending makes up almost 60 per cent. So you can argue it is the effect on sentiment rather than the hard data that makes developments in China and mining most significant.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.