Three reasons Australia's economy is so resilient – shopping, housing and, yes, mining

Despite the end of the boom, resources is still the most important sector, ably supported by building houses and buying things to put in them

The early signs for the GDP figures were not good - capital expenditure was weak and the outlook terrible, and on Tuesday the latest balance of payments figures showed that net exports would contribute nothing to GDP growth in the December quarter.

But then the figures came out on Wednesday showing that in seasonally adjusted terms the economy grew by 0.6% in December and a very solid 3.0% for the year.