Our estimate is that growth over the four quarters of 2015 was about 2½ per cent. This continued expansion has occurred in the face of a very large contraction in capital spending in the mining sector, restrained public final spending and the reduction in national income coming from the declining terms of trade.
It has been helped by easy monetary policy and the lower exchange rate. Notwithstanding below-average GDP growth, the demand for labour increased at an above average pace in 2015. The number of people employed, as measured, increased by well over 2 per cent, participation in the labour force picked up and the rate of unemployment declined, to be below 6 per cent.