Today is National Accounts day, one of those four glorious days each year on which we receive the latest quarterly GDP figures for the national economy, this time for the March quarter. Alas, based on the partial indicators such as construction activity and net exports, economists are expecting a pretty discouraging result today (e.g. see ABC News coverage). This will add to growing concerns about the outlook for the Australian economy over the next twelve months. Given our booming tourism sector and strong resources sector exports, Queensland’s economic outlook is much better than the rest of Australia’s at the moment, in my view. Certainly the last set of Queensland State Accounts data for December quarter 2016 had the Queensland economy overall now growing at a healthy rate and faster than the rest of Australia’s (see chart below).
But will the Queensland economy continue to grow at a healthy rate over 2017-18? Someone well placed to offer a view is Greg Uptin, who is in charge of forecasting the State economy at Queensland Treasury, and who will be presenting to the Economic Society of Australia (Qld), of which I am the Secretary, on Wednesday 21 June:
2017 Post-Budget Briefing on the Economic Forecasts by Queensland Treasury
If you’re interested in the outlook for the Queensland economy, then I highly recommend you attend this lunchtime event, which is being held at ShineWing Australia at their Riparian Plaza offices on Eagle St, Brisbane.
Queensland Economy Watch 
Gene, Good to hear and see positive news for our economy.
Will you be providing a summary of the Economic Forecast?
If the Carmichael mine and railway does go ahead that will also give a sharp boost the the economy. It will see areas such as Rocky, Mackay, Whitsundays and even Townsville pick up some much needed confidence through jobs, positive migration and service businesses. Brisbane would also benefit.
It would be interesting to know how much of the construction cost is spend locally and in Australia. I guess this is in their submission documents.
Thanks Russell. Yes, I’ll definitely be providing a summary. I’ll see if I can find anything about the expected local spend of the project.