resources will boom for years says john howard

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Source: www.news.com.au/business

Resources will boom for years - Howard
May 18, 2007 11:50am

THE resources boom is likely to continue for years because China's economy is continuing to expand, Prime Minister John Howard says.

Mr Howard says it is wrong to attribute Australia's economic strength solely to resources.

"First of all the resources boom is likely to go on for years. I can't say how many," he told Macquarie Regional Radioworks in Townsville today.

"The Chinese economy is going to go on expanding for many years. It has still got an enormous amount of surplus expansion capacity."

Mr Howard said it wasn't only mining that had made Australia prosperous.

In north Queensland, for example, tourism, the universities sector and the enormous investment in defence had all contributed, he said.

Mr Howard said the huge growth in employment had occurred in the services sector of the economy, not in mining.

"Mining only accounts for a relatively small section of employment," he said.

"(In) last month's employment figures, something like 70 per cent of the rise in employment occurred in NSW, South Australia and Victoria, which of course are not resources states in the way that Queensland and Western Australia are.

"Sure the resources boom is fantastic. But this idea that the Labor Party is putting around that our prosperity is all due to the resources boom is nonsense."


Ends.

Cheers, Pie