Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Labour Market (Oct.) While employment increased in October for the first time since July, revisions to September’s figures meant that the annual rate of employment growth fell to a two-year low of 0.9% y/y, which will do... 17th November 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Consumer Confidence (Nov.) Despite the modest fall in the Westpac measure of consumer confidence in November, confidence levels suggest that any slowdown in consumption growth won’t be too severe. More worryingly, the rise in... 9th November 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Retail Sales (Sep.) The outright fall in real retail sales in the third quarter is consistent with a further slowdown in real consumption growth. That said, the better-than-expected rise in nominal sales in September... 4th November 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response International Trade (Sep.) The recent leap in coal prices explains a lot of the sharp narrowing in the trade deficit to a 20-month low in September. If coal prices stay at current levels the deficit could even be wiped out... 3rd November 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand Labour Market (Q3) While employment growth was stronger than expected in the third quarter, wage growth remained worryingly weak. This will do little to allay the RBNZ’s concerns about the inflation outlook and as a... 2nd November 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Prices (Q3) Ignore the larger-than-expected rise in headline CPI inflation in the third quarter, what really matters is that underlying inflation was weaker than the RBA expected. It probably wasn’t weak enough... 26th October 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Labour Market (Sep.) The RBA may not be too worried by the further decline in employment in September since the data are subject to a couple of distortions and since the unemployment rate fell to 5.6% from 5.7%. But the... 20th October 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand Consumer Prices (Q3) The fall in CPI inflation to 0.2% in the third quarter from 0.4% in the second quarter is in line with the RBNZ’s forecast and means the Bank will follow through on its suggestion that interest rates... 18th October 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Consumer Confidence (Oct.) The further rise in the Westpac measure of consumer confidence in October suggests that the rebound in retail sales in August will be sustained in the coming months. That said, the survey does... 12th October 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia International Trade (Aug.) The sharp narrowing in the trade deficit in August rounds off a good week of data for the Australian economy and suggests that GDP growth in the third quarter may have been stronger than the 0.5% q/q... 6th October 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Retail Sales (Aug.) The better-than-expected rise in retail sales in August will go some way to allaying growing concerns, such as those highlighted by the RBA yesterday, that the easing in consumption growth in the... 5th October 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response ABS House Prices (Q2) The ABS measure of house prices supports other evidence showing that the housing market has found a new lease of life. That said, the market is not as strong as widely believed and it’s more likely to... 20th September 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Labour Market (Aug.) After adjusting the data to strip out the temporary boost from the Census, we estimate that employment fell by around 14,000 in August. While we aren’t too concerned about the outlook for employment... 15th September 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand GDP (Q2) By contributing to a surge in housing-related activity, record low interest rates provided the foundations for the impressive pick-up in GDP growth in the second quarter. This probably won’t prevent... 15th September 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Confidence (Sep.) September’s Westpac measure of consumer confidence shows that the rise in August was sustained. This should help to calm concerns about the health of the household sector following the slowdown in... 14th September 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia International Trade (Jul.) Even though the international trade deficit narrowed in July, net exports are still on course to remain a drag on real GDP growth in the third quarter. The external sector could really do with the... 8th September 2016 · 1 min read
