It was a week of mixed economic news for Queensland, with the latest ABS data showing retail spending is growing reasonably well in Queensland, while building approvals continue at low levels. Queensland is out-performing the rest of Australia on retail trade (first chart below, borrowed from Qld Treasury), but is not experiencing the recovery in building approvals that appears to be occurring elsewhere in Australia (second chart below, also borrowed from Treasury).

The combination of reasonable retail trade numbers and poor building approvals suggests the problem the building industry in Queensland is facing is a relative oversupply of dwellings, because of strong building industry activity in the lead up to the financial crisis and also because Queensland’s population growth has been lower than expected in recent years.