Australians 'have never had it so good'

Reuters

GOOD TIMES: Economists says Australians have never had it so good.

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Australians have never had it so good, to coin a phrase.

A big call, but Commonwealth Securities chief economist Craig James says a new measurement tool launched on Monday shows that Australians are indeed living in prosperous times.

The CommSec National Performance Gauge stood at a record high at the end of 2009, rising four per cent over the past year when other countries were trying to cope with global financial crisis.

While the recent Australian Bureau of Statistics national accounts data showed Australia outperformed the rest of the world in 2009, the data indicates how the broader economy fared rather than individuals.

"The CommSec National Performance Gauge attempts to fill the void by focusing on issues that matter to ordinary Aussies," Mr James said when launching the gauge.

"That is, financial decisions like buying a car or house, filling up the car with petrol, the state of the job market, wages and confidence levels."

The CommSec gauge has seven measures:

- income per head
- retailing spending per head
- unemployment
- consumer confidence
- number of weeks to buy a car
- number of weeks to pay the average monthly mortgage repayment
- litres of petrol that can be purchased on the average wage.

The starting point for the gauge is 1987.

Over the past decade, the CommSec gauge has increased by just over 10 per cent.

"While the standard of living of ordinary Australians has lifted over time, those who have done best have been those holding assets such as shares and houses," Mr James said.

Adding shares and house prices to the index - the CommSec National Performance Gauge Plus - this shows a 42 per cent jump over the past 10 years.

The gauge shows that car affordability is the strongest in 35 years, taking a person on the average wage just under 30 weeks to buy a new Ford Falcon, down from 36 weeks five years ago.

You can also buy just over 1,000 litres of petrol per week on the average wage, a gain of seven per cent over the same five-year period.

During that time, income per head has increased by six per cent and retail spending has risen seven per cent.

And while there are gripes about rising home lending rates, the gauge shows it takes a worker on the average wage 1.58 weeks to make the monthly repayment on an average mortgage, similar to levels of five years ago.

Among the states and territories, the ACT tops the gauge's ranking, followed by Western Australia and Tasmania.

The country's two most populous states, NSW and Victoria, came seventh and eighth, respectively.
Mr James admits it is difficult to accurately compare different periods of time.

"Many, perhaps fondly, remember the simpler times of the 1950s and 1960s. And some people would prefer that interest rates were lower or perhaps jobs were more plentiful," he said.

"But in terms of general economic well-being, you would be hard pressed to fault the current times."

- AAP