Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson said this morning at a senate estimates committee:
“We are beginning to see early signs that …interest rate-sensitive sectors are responding. We are seeing leading indicators in the housing sector pick-up, we are seeing a pick-up in non residential construction, and consumption has remained solid…It was always a question of would this be a smooth transition, and the conclusion is it probably wouldn’t.”
And from the AFR, Parko went on:
“Some of the hysteria in the press today is really over the top. Not that many years ago, when there was a strong contribution to growth from exports but limited growth in national expenditure, it would have been applauded as “a good thing”. I understand that people need to get publicity and that they need to sell products, but some of the interpretations that have been placed on the data yesterday are really quite difficult to fathom.”
We shall see.
