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- Glenn Stevens, RBA Governor
The Australian economy is performing stronger than it was initially expected, as growth surprised markets to the upside, while RBA's comments pushed higher investors' confidence in the resource-rich economy. The only concern was the labour market, as mining sector switched from the investment phase, while other sectors were not creating enough jobs to provide significant boost to the labour market.
This week a report from Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the Oz economy boosted full-time payrolls last month by the most in more than 22 years, suggesting the labour market is on the path of the recovery. The number of people that were hired full-time advanced 80,500 in February from the previous month. The overall unemployment rate, however, remained unchanged at 6.0%, with a net 47,300 new working places being added over the period, beating market's estimations for a 15,000 increase. At the same time, more than 30,000 part-time jobs were lost over the observed period. But what is more promising, is a first pick up in the participation rate over the last nine months, with the indicator climbing 0.2% to 64.8%. Together with increasing house prices and a sharp rise in the number of new building approvals, economists raised the possibility that the construction industry can help offset the slowdown in the key mining sector.