WINDOWS Magazine Summer 2015 | Page 12

eco n o m y Momentum is building in the eastern states geordan murray HIA Economist T hroughout much of the last decade, New South Wales and Victoria could do little but watch on in awe as the wave of investment by the mining and energy sectors delivered exceptionally strong rates of economic growth to the states with resource riches, while an oppressive exchange rate crunched the international competitiveness of their services and manufacturing sectors. solid contribution from ongoing work on the $1.27 billion Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Project in Parkville. The state also rated very highly for work done on office buildings with a number of projects currently underway in the CBD. New South Wales continues to be a ‘jack of all trades but master of none’. The state does not rank as the strongest jurisdiction in any of the sub-sectors of non-residential building or engineering construction, but achieves above-average rankings across almost all. The tide has now well and truly turned. The economies leveraged to the mining and energy sectors are increasingly facing headwinds, and the eastern seaboard economies are on the rebound. This changing dynamic is cl X\