Australia’s economy grew faster in the first three months of this year than it has for over six years – but with growth mainly driven by mining exports and public spending on health and the NDIS, households have largely missed out on the benefits as spending continues to be weak and real incomes continue to fall.

First, the good news. In the March quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms, Australia’s economy grew by 1.0%, the fastest quarterly growth since December 2011:

This produced a big jump in the annual growth rate – up from 2.4% in December to 3.1% – the strongest for nearly two years. It says something that 3.1% used to be the average growth rate, and now it is the best we have seen for some time.

In trend terms things were a touch less exuberant. Quarterly growth was just 0.7% and was actually slower than in the December quarter, and the annual rate of 2.8% marked the 22nd consecutive quarter where growth was below 3%:

The main reason the seasonally adjusted figures were rather shinier than the trend figures was that the biggest drivers of growth in March were exports of LNG and coal. Unlike consumption and investment spending, export growth (and especially net exports, which subtracts the negative impact of imports on economic growth) is rather erratic – and thus bounces around a bit, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Australia's GDP growth jumps to 3.1% on back of mining exports Read more

In the March quarter, net exports added 0.35% to GDP growth – a third of the total growth, and yet in the December quarter (due to cyclones that prevented some exports) next exports actually reduced GDP growth:

After exports, the big drivers of growth were government spending on health, aged care and the NDIS. Interestingly, despite recent strong spending on public investment projects, in March the growth of public investment slowed somewhat, while still adding to GDP:

While household consumption in March contributed 0.2% points to GDP growth, such an amount actually highlights how weak household spending is at the moment.

Household consumption makes up around 60% of our economy, and yet it contributed only 20% of the growth in the first three months of this year.

Over the past year household consumption grew by just 2.9% – marking more than six years since it grew by more than 3% in trend terms – a level that once would have been considered well below-average:

And a major reason that spending was even that good was because households are reducing the amount they are saving. In March, Australia households on average saved just 2.1% of their disposable income – the lowest since 2007. We’re spending as much as we were last year, but we are saving less in order to do so.

The reason of course is weak wages growth.

And here we see two different pictures – one that is good for the government and one that is less good for households.

While over the past year the total amount of compensation (mostly wages and salaries) going to employees rose 5.1% – the strongest for six years – the average compensation per employee rose just 1.6%, the best only since 2014:

In the past, around 60% of the rise in total compensation to employees was due to rises in the average rate (i.e. pay rises); now it accounts for only around 30%.

Essentially, the total amount is rising because employment growth was so strong over the past year that it outweighed the weak wages growth.

That has been good for government income tax revenue – because that is based on a combination of employment and wage growth. But while that worked well in 2017, the latest figures suggest that the very strong employment growth is coming off the boil:

If that continues, then the lack of wages growth will start once again to bite into tax revenue forecasts.

And the lack of growth in average wages is not all that surprising given where the growth in the economy and employment is coming from – mining exports (which don’t require much labour) and the health and aged care sector.

Government spending in infrastructure, healthcare and the NDIS has seen government contribution to GDP growth reach levels much more associated with times where the economy needs government stimulus, rather than where the private sector is powering us along:

And while the average level of compensation going to employees is growing, the figures only serve to highlight how households are actually going backwards.

In the past 12 months average compensation to employees grew by 1.6% while inflation during that time grew by 1.9% - meaning in real terms, employees went backwards.

This should be no shock – the average compensation of employees hasn’t risen in real terms in any meaningful sense for six years:

It is why household disposable income per capita, despite rising ever so slightly in March, remains lower now than it was in 2012:

So yes, it is good that the economy is growing, but these figures show no real sign of any change from the picture that we have become accustomed to – economic growth remaining positive but historically weak; and households seeing little of that growth flowing through into improved standards of living.

• Greg Jericho is a Guardian Australia columnist