It helped to accommodate a rise in household saving and a slowdown in the build-up of debt in a fairly benign fashion. The weakness of some other parts of private demand, and openness to imports with a high exchange rate has also meant that a very large expansion in mining investment has been accommodated without overheating the economy overall.
As it was, total real private final demand in Australia rose by 6 per cent in 2011/12, well above trend. With the peak in the investment phase of the mining boom now coming into view, the question naturally arises as to how the balance between the various types of demand in the economy will unfold.