New ABS figures released today show Victoria outperformed the Australian average by attracting the highest ever level of private new capital investment in the past quarter.
Treasurer John Lenders said the figures showed there was potential for further job growth in the Victorian economy even though there were economic pressures from overseas.
“Businesses are continuing to invest strongly in Victoria despite the challenges facing the international economy,” Mr Lenders said.
“In the past quarter alone Victorian businesses invested $4.34 billion into our economy - the biggest quarterly investment ever seen in our state.
“This shows that many Victorian businesses are buying new plant and equipment at record levels as they prepare to hire new staff.
“While the global economy is slowing our economic fundamentals continue to be strong.”
Private capital investment in Victoria rose by seven per cent in the past quarter, outperforming the Australian average of a 5.7 per cent increase.
Mr Lenders said while there were some businesses who were finding the current international climate challenging many others were investing for the future. "We are working with business to create the jobs of the future."
“We have cut $5.7 billion worth of taxes, invested strongly in economic infrastructure and provided targeted assistance for worthy projects making Victoria an attractive place to do business,” Mr Lenders said.
“With our recent $316 million investment in our skills sector and $300 million investment in innovation we are working with business to create the jobs of the future.
“This will help us build on our jobs growth which saw 52,300 new jobs created in Victoria last financial year - more than the resource states.”
Mr Lenders said Victoria had attracted thousands of new jobs over the past three months including up to 700 jobs at BankWest, 250 at Costco, 200 at Origin Energy’s Mortlake power station, 475 at Goulburn Valley’s Freight and Logistics Centre, 120 at Tiger Airways, 730 at Santos’ Shaw River power station, 40 at igate, 100 at ExxonMobil and 180 at TME Australia.