Qld over the worst of the GFC: RBA

Queensland is through the worst of its battering from the global financial crisis,
the central bank says.
Reserve Bank of Australia Deputy Governor Ric Battellino, who was in Brisbane on
Friday, was commenting on the recovery of economies around the globe, and in
particular singled out Queensland.
He said Queensland's recovery had started, while its property market was correcting
itself.
"I think there were parts of the residential property market that were overdone and
a correction has to happen," Dr Battellino told the crowd.
"I think Queensland is basically through the worst of it."
Wages growth was also responsible for fixing previous problems, and a growth in
income was not just happening in Queensland, but across Australia, he said.
Meanwhile, August jobs figures released on Thursday from the Australian Bureau of
Statistics showed a slight drop in Queensland's unemployment rate, from 5.4 to 5.3
per cent.
Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser said while the state had positive jobs creation
for 14 months, Treasury has predicted the unemployment rate will fall below five per
cent by 2010/11.
"This shows the importance of our economic reform program which is building our
economic recovery," Mr Fraser said on Thursday.
Opposition treasury spokesman Tim Nicholls told AAP while he agreed the state is
through the worst of it, the mining sector was holding up the state, while areas
such as construction, tourism and retail sales were struggling.
"There's no doubt there are pockets of the economy that are doing well from the
resources boom," Mr Nicholls said.
"But there are long-term parts of the economy doing it very tough."
Dr Battellino also said China was recovering well, while the US had just begun to
recover.