SYDNEY, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Australian companies' gross operating profits rose by a better than expected two percent in the June quarter and wages increased in most industries, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Monday.
"It was greater than the market was expecting," CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael McCarthy told Xinhua.
"Overall the market was looking for 1.3 percent so that 2 percent read came in substantially above."
The financial services industry saw the biggest spike in profits with a 13.3 percent increase.
However the most significant contributor to the profit jump overall was the mining sector, with a rise of 4.4 percent across the three months, despite unfavourable commodity prices.
As well, Australians enjoyed a rise in wages across most industries, excluding education and training, where wages fell 0.5 percent, and transport, postal and warehousing, which fell 0.3 percent.
McCarthy said the results were a welcome surprise and would hopefully inject some optimism into those feeling less than cheery about the nation's economic outlook.
"I think there's a real caution about the outlook for business and about the conditions that businesses are operating in, which in fact underestimates the upswing that we're seeing in the Australian economy," McCarthy said.
