PM: Economic coverage is distorted

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has criticised economic commentators describing discussion and coverage as "misguided" and "distorted" in her address to CEDA's State of the Nation 2013 conference in Canberra.

Starting her third anniversary as Prime Minister, Ms Gillard said analysts have "unreasonable pessimism" which is threatening Australia's economic health.

"Any irrational threat to economic confidence is a threat to jobs and growth," she said.

She said commentary and discussion about the economy is inaccurate.

"Discussion has been marked by some strikingly misguided commentary…..I'm referring to glaring misstatements about the economy itself," she said.

"As Prime Minister, I am concerned that left unchecked, this kind of distorted coverage could continue to spread."

"Given the underlying strengths of the economy, about the biggest mistake we could make would be to talk ourselves into unnecessary economic weakness."

She also told the CEDA audience the Australian economy is "growing and stable and strong" according to key statistics from the quarterly figures released three weeks ago.

"New dwelling investment rose by 10.2 per cent - the strongest annual growth in 10 years, further evidence that the non-resource sectors of the economy are picking up," she said.

"Non-rural commodity export volumes were up 13.2 per cent over the year."

The Prime Minister also discussed the strength of the Australian dollar saying its high value was due to "our strength and global weaknesses".

"Our Australian dollar reflects our strong fundamentals - solid growth, low unemployment, low debt, AAA credit ratings - but also the change that many other developed economies have faced," she said.

The Australian dollar dropped to a 33 month low last week, a good thing for the economy, she said.

"A sustained depreciation of the Australian dollar in those circumstances would be a very good thing, to stimulate further growth in the non-mining sector," she said.