Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Meteoric rise in the dollar will soon run out of fizz The recent rise in the Australian dollar to a two-and-a-half year high of just under US$0.80 has been meteoric. But while the dollar may orbit around that level for a bit, we don't think it will be... 21st July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand Consumer Prices (Q2) The weaker tone of the inflation data for the second quarter has already caused the New Zealand dollar to weaken back below US$0.73 and the dollar may yet fall below US$0.70 as the markets realise... 18th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly What’s driving the divergence in confidence? The gap between consumer and business confidence has widened further in recent months as rising profits have made firms increasingly optimistic while subdued wage growth has kept households... 14th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Confidence (Jul.) While the Westpac measure of consumer confidence nudged up in July, it remains below the long-run average and is consistent with a further slowdown in real consumption growth ahead. 12th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus Consumption by sector: winners and losers While we expect that overall consumption growth will slow further this year and remain subdued in 2018 as well, not all areas of spending are equally vulnerable. Past behaviour suggests that spending... 10th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Household indebtedness weighs on the economic outlook The rising level of household debt in Australia presents a clear risk to the economic outlook and helps in part to explain why we expect the pace of consumer spending to slow this year. What’s more... 7th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update RBA’s fears about household indebtedness persist The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left interest rates on hold at 1.5% for the tenth consecutive meeting today and retained its fairly optimistic tone on the outlook for economic growth in the... 4th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Slow wage growth to persist despite strong job growth While the recent run of positive news on the health of the Australian labour market is certainly encouraging, it doesn’t alter the bigger picture that there is still plenty of spare capacity. This... 30th June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack Growth to remain subdued in Australia While GDP growth in both Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter was weaker than most had anticipated, this was partly the result of temporary factors that will fade. Nonetheless, while the... 29th June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update New Zealand Activity Proxy (Apr.) GDP growth was surprisingly weak in the first quarter and the slowdown in our New Zealand Activity Proxy (NZAP) in April suggests activity was subdued at the start of the second quarter too. However... 26th June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly All Blacks to beat British Lions in economic tests If the relative performance of the economies of New Zealand and the UK/Ireland over the next few years is anything to go by, the All Blacks will beat the British & Irish Lions 2-1 in the rugby test... 23rd June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update New Zealand - RBNZ won’t raise rates next year as markets expect The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s decision to leave interest rates at 1.75% today and repeat its comment that they will stay there for a “considerable period” should prompt the financial markets to... 21st June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Energy price hikes pile more pressure on households The utility bills of Australian households won’t rise by as much as the eye-watering 20% figure that has been catching the headlines as not all retailers have raised prices by that much and as prices... 16th June 2017 · 1 min read
RBNZ Watch New Zealand - RBNZ won’t be perturbed by the weak GDP figures Although the first-quarter GDP growth figures were notably weaker than the RBNZ had expected, the Bank will almost certainly keep the official cash rate (OCR) on hold at 1.75% at its monetary policy... 16th June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand GDP (Q1) The weaker-than-expected rise in GDP in the first quarter means that GDP growth this year is likely to be closer to 3.0% than our previous forecast of 3.5%. While that would still be a fairly decent... 15th June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Confidence (Jun.) The further fall in the Westpac measure of consumer confidence in June to its lowest level since April 2016 will add to growing concerns about the outlook for consumer spending. On past form... 14th June 2017 · 1 min read
