The RBA’s glass-half-full chart presentation to the Prime Minister’s global economy forum

The Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens says the mining boom is not to blame for Australia’s multi-speed economy.

Stevens suggested the economy was always a patchwork, “never a seamlessly woven garment.”

“It’s very rare that all sectors and all regions go at the same speed at the same time.

“Usually, if that’s happening it’s a recession or an unsustainable boom.”

The major shift in household spending combined with saving patterns was now the overriding influence on the Australian economy, he told the federal government’s economic forum in Brisbane.

“I actually think that a lot of the disquiet and dissatisfaction that we see isn’t really related to the mining boom at all,” Stevens said.

“I think it’s got a lot to do with changes of household behaviour, which come after a very unusual period of strong spending, leveraging up and saving nothing out of current income.

“And that was bound to end sooner or later, and it has. In fact, it ended about five years ago,” he said.

“And we are still, I think, coming to grips with the importance of that now, and I think it’s a significant factor that is behind some of the disquiet we see.”

There were 14 charts within Stevens’s speech.

Property Observer publishes five of them that give an insight into the state of the economy for prospective property investors.

This article first appeared on Property Observer.