Key economic figures indicating the health of the state\u2019s economy were released yesterday, with State Final Demand \u2013 a measure of economic activity \u2013 rising by 3 per cent in 2024-25, equalling Western Australia and outpacing national Domestic Final Demand at 2.1 per cent.<\/p>\n
The state government seized on the figure claiming it showed the state\u2019s economy was \u201cforging ahead\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a state government press release, Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis hailed the figures as \u201cthe latest in a series of positive endorsements of South Australia\u2019s economic direction, with a record number of South Australians in jobs in the previous month and the national Business Council of Australia again endorsing our state as the best place in the nation to do business\u201d.<\/p>\n
But then there was Gross State Product \u2013 a reflection of how the state is doing from an economic activity perspective \u2013 that increased by just 1 per cent.<\/p>\n
This was driven by residential construction, with services industries including financial and health care services bolstering the growth.<\/p>\n
The figures showed Australian Gross Domestic Product grew at 1.4 per cent for the same period, but other states were comparative standouts to South Australia, with the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland GSP growing at 3.5 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively.<\/p>\n
Western Australia and Victoria were also ahead of SA on these measures, with just New South Wales (0.9 per cent) growing less than SA.<\/p>\n
Credit Union SA Chair of Economics at Uni SA Dr Susan Stone gave her own commentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cGross State Product is a good reflection of how we are doing from an economic perspective. It does not measure things like quality of life, inequality or environmental sustainability. So it needs to be taken with a certain grain of salt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, economic activity is a very important metric \u2013 it\u2019s what drives the jobs we have to pay our bills and provides the goods and services we need to live our lives. From that perspective, it\u2019s an important number to track.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf economic activity declines, so will job prospects. A growing economy means more, and\/or better, jobs, more services and, from a material standpoint, a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stone said it was important to look at what was driving growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor SA it\u2019s still residential construction (which is a good thing) and also finance and insurance services (which may not be so great if it\u2019s due to claims from floods and other climate-driven events),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, we saw big declines in agriculture, fish and forestry where the rest of the country grew, and manufacturing declined more in SA than nationally.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, Professional, Scientific and Technical outputs fell for Australia overall, but didn\u2019t change much for SA. This reverses what we saw last year (2023-24), where output in that sector grew by 0.8 per cent for SA and 1.3 per cent for AUS.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that it \u201cmakes sense\u201d why the SFD figure was stronger, because it did not include the state\u2019s net exports: \u201cgiven the dismal performance of our agriculture, fish and forestry industry, which is a big exporter for SA, that would be a drag on total output\u201d.<\/p>\n
The State Liberal Party highlighted the Gross State Product per capita figure, which declined by 0.1 per cent, having fallen by 0.4 per cent the year before.<\/p>\n
The state opposition also pointed toward gross household disposable income per capita of $54,000, below the national average of $62,000.<\/p>\n
Shadow Treasurer Sam Telfer said the data was a significant concern for jobs and investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy contracting per person should be a warning sign, and these results show clearly that South Australia needs a change of course,\u201d Telfer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is happening whilst housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable, electricity prices are eye-wateringly high, homes and businesses are struggling to keep the lights on, and state debt is climbing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe South Australian economy has been sending warning signs for some time now and the Labor Government won\u2019t even acknowledge the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key economic figures indicating the health of the state\u2019s economy were released yesterday, with State Final Demand \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-299569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}