Finance sector 'growing rapidly': Deloitte
Despite "announcements to the contrary", official statistics show the finance sector is "growing rapidly and employing more people", according to Deloitte Access Economics director Chris Richardson.
The finding is part of the Deloitte June 2012 quarter Business Outlook, which highlighted that Australia has seen 21 years without a recession as at 1 July 2012.
The "striking investment boom" is playing the key role in Australia's success story, and there is "more where that came from", Richardson said.
"Yet the peak of the project pipeline is already in sight, meaning the key prop to the faster part of Australia's two-speed economy is looking less certain the further out you look," he said.
However, there is "enough gas in the tank" in the investment pipeline to provide protection for Australia should Europe or China suffer a significant decline, Richardson said.
The slower side of Australia's two-speed economy is doing better than people realise, with consumer spending "surprisingly strong" despite the fading pace of housing construction, he added.
The public sector is also growing well, along with engineering, mining production and farming output, Richardson said.
But the picture is not all rosy.
"Manufacturing growth only just has its head above water, and the utilities sector is also shrinking - in part, due to the absence of any certainty on the future of carbon pricing," he said.
Provided the outlook for Europe and China holds, there may only be one more interest rate cut left in the cycle, Richardson added.
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