For months, Jim Chalmers has been trying to pull off the economic equivalent of a baton pass from the government to the private sector.
So much so, it was the focus of his public comments after GDP grew a better-than-expected 0.6% in the June quarter national accounts this week.
"The big story in today's data is the private sector recovery," Chalmers said in a press conference in Parliament's Blue Room, displaying a bar chart showing the slow shift from public final demand to private final demand. In the latest quarter, final private demand grew 0.6% over the quarter and contributed 0.4 percentage points to GDP growth.
This is the second consecutive quarter where figures have suggested the much-needed shift to the private sector is taking shape.
