Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly RBA not ready to cut The financial markets are now pricing in a small chance of a rate cut by the RBA next year following the release of weak GDP data this week. But while we expect GDP growth to slow further next year... 7th December 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Budget surplus, looser lending restrictions The rapid decline in the budget deficit suggests that the Government may announce higher spending or tax cuts in next year’s Budget. And Labor has pledged to eliminate a number of tax privileges if it... 30th November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Immigration curbs & recession risks Immigration has been very strong in New Zealand in recent years but we think it will slow sharply over the next couple of years. By contrast, we don’t think that the Australian government will... 23rd November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Tosh analysis & good news from labour market The Australian Labor Party’s fiscal proposals may not be quite as restrictive as we had thought. But we still believe that fiscal policy would be tighter if Labor wins the next Federal election... 16th November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Central banks getting more confident Both the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand displayed a little more confidence in their optimistic forecasts when they left interest rates unchanged this week. We think that... 9th November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Inflation trouble The slowdown in underlying inflation in the third quarter didn’t come as a shock to the RBA. But the bigger picture is that market forces are still keeping inflation subdued. And with early signs that... 2nd November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Housing matters Falling equity and house prices have both made the news this week. But when it comes to what is going to influence the Australian economy, housing matters much more. The weakening housing market is... 26th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Full employment has not been achieved Even though the unemployment rate has fallen to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 5.0% estimate of the natural rate, the RBA will still want to see signs of much faster wage growth before it hikes... 19th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Falling equities, rising petrol, climbing borrowing costs The recent plunge in equity prices, surge in petrol prices and rise in borrowing costs all triggered by developments overseas won’t hurt the Australian economy much. But they do add to other headwinds... 12th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly RBA’s upbeat tone contrasts with downbeat data We doubt that the gap between the Reserve Bank of Australia’s relatively upbeat tone and the downbeat feel of the recent economic news will be sustained for long. We suspect the RBA may become a... 5th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Budget deficit, Royal Commission and election risk The shrinking budget deficit gives the Coalition government a bit more fiscal ammunition to deploy ahead of Australia’s next Federal election, while there is no way of knowing at this stage how the... 28th September 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Our new forecasts and the RBA’s trade war fears After revamping all our forecasts, we have concluded that the RBA and the RBNZ probably won’t raise interest rates until late in 2020 and late in 2021 respectively. That explains why we now expect the... 21st September 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Conditions for higher wages (slowly) falling into place This week the Australian economy took one more step towards meeting the conditions that would require higher interest rates, but it may be another 12-18 months at the least before the RBA has enough... 14th September 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Surging GDP, stationary RBA The recent stellar performance of the Australian economy hasn’t made it much more likely that the RBA will raise interest rates sooner because it is businesses that are benefiting most not households... 7th September 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Rising mortgage rates, housing and the RBA Australia is still a very long way from a recession or a financial crisis, but this week’s news that Westpac is hiking its mortgage rates has raised the risk a bit. After all, higher mortgage rates... 31st August 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Is the dollar pondering a Labor government? This week’s political chaos has increased the downside risks to the Australian dollar. Although the markets welcomed the news that Scott Morrison has replaced Malcolm Turnbull as Australia’s Prime... 24th August 2018 · 1 min read
