That old adage that you can prove anything with statistics was brilliantly illustrated yesterday when South Australia’s business leaders responded very differently to newly-released ABS figures on local building approvals.

The Property Council was the first cab off the rank, claiming that “SA contributes to record-breaking building approvals”, and happily noting that “building approvals in SA are increasing over the 12 month period, according to the latest data released today from the ABS”.

However, an hour later, Business SA’s assessment of the same data hit inboxes in newsrooms across the state, and it was rather more downbeat: “SA building approvals drop sharply.”

Then, not to be outdone, the Housing Industry Association followed up with a ‘Chicken Little’-inspired missive on “South Australia’s Residential Building Crisis”, lamenting that the ABS data “highlights the dire state of SA’s new housing activity”.

So in the space of a few short hours, we’ve gone from high fives all round to a “new housing recession”.

What gives?

Were they all analysing the same figures?

Well, yes and no.

As ever with business data, the same stats can yield some very different conclusions. It’s all a matter of interpretation.

While the Property Council’s Daniel Gannon based his optimism on a reading of the data over the past year, Business SA’s Nigel McBride’s consternation came from noting a sharp decrease in the past month.

“According to seasonally adjusted figures … total building approvals for South Australia fell by 41.4 per cent in February following consecutive increases in December and January totalling 49.2 per cent,” his missive bemoaned.

It did note, on the upside, that “private sector house approvals only fell by 5.3 per cent after recording a small increase of 0.5% in January”. Which as far as looking on the bright side goes is perhaps a little like A.A.Milne’s Eeyore noting that at least “we haven’t had an earthquake lately”.

McBride is quoted as reflecting: “We had reason to be optimistic after strong rises in building approvals across December and January, but unfortunately that trend has lost momentum into February.”

“While there is always significant volatility in monthly building approval figures in South Australia, the results on a national scale show the broader economy is starting to slow. However, we do need to recognise the longer term cycle which shows total building approvals in South Australia up by 6.3% year on year.”

It was that “longer term cycle” that caught Gannon’s eye, with the Property Council highlighting “state building approvals have shot up by six per cent compared with the previous year’s result”.

Gannon did sound one note of warning, arguing “this can only continue if key roadblocks to sustained strong activity in the industry are removed”.

“That means planning and tax reform must be a priority,” he said.

The HIA’s Robert Harding attached a graph that appeared to justify his despondent tone, noting “while residential building activity is carrying state economic activity and productivity in other states, SA is missing the boat”.

Source: Housing Industry Association, ABS

“Today’s figures … confirm the significant downward trend which new residential housing has experienced following the State Government decision to withdraw the Residential Housing Grant from December 2013,” Harding said.

“South Australia has been in serious decline for over a year now.”

But Gannon was unapologetic about his overwhelmingly positive tone, telling InDaily: “This is a good news story!”

“It’s easy to highlight possible downsides to industry at the moment,” he said.

“South Australia is a confidence state, which is why we need to seriously consider the message that we send to potential investors and job creators. There’s no denying SA is genuinely contributing to the nation’s record-breaking building approvals trend.”

However you choose to spin them, the ABS figures are available here.