Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack Inflation set to fall sharply The recent slump in crude oil prices means that the tailwind to consumer price inflation from soaring energy prices won’t be sustained. After boosting Australia’s headline inflation by 0.6 percentage... 29th November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Private Capex Survey (Q3) The fall in private capital expenditure wasn’t as bad as the headline suggests but a slowdown in GDP growth in the third quarter will be hard to avoid. 29th November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update New Zealand - Looser LTV constraints won’t reignite housing market The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s decision to ease mortgage lending restrictions probably won’t result in a major pick-up in lending and home sales. And with house prices looking stretched relative to... 28th November 2018 · 1 min read
RBA Watch Slumping oil prices another headache for RBA The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will hold rates steady at next week’s meeting and signal that the first hike is still some way off. With the downturn in the housing market continuing unabated and... 27th 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 Update RBA can hike while Fed cuts Australia’s economy has become less sensitive to conditions in the US as their trade links have diminished. The upshot is that the RBA should be able to hike interest rates in 2020 even if our... 21st November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update New Zealand - Easing net migration a headwind to GDP growth Policy changes and a narrowing between the relative attractiveness of Australia and New Zealand will contribute to a slowdown in net migration to New Zealand. Easing net migration will cause growth in... 19th 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 Data Response Labour Market (Oct.) The unemployment rate remained at a six-year low in October and will probably fall a little further over coming months. However, we still think that wage growth will only pick up slowly and the RBA... 15th November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Wage Price Index (Q3) The increase in annual wage growth from 2.1% in Q2 to 2.3% in Q3 is nothing to get excited about as it was partly driven by an increase in the minimum wage. What’s more, subdued growth in real wages... 14th November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus Labor’s fiscal plans would strengthen case for low rates We estimate that Labor’s plans to tighten fiscal policy would dampen consumer spending by around 0.3 percentage points in both 2019 and 2020, shaving 0.2 percentage points off GDP in each of those... 13th 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 Update House prices will fall further despite supply response The recent slump in building approvals suggests that the supply overhang in the housing market may disappear next year. But we still think that the current downturn will prove to be the longest and... 7th November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand - Labour Market (Q3) The dramatic fall in the unemployment rate to 3.9% in the third quarter should encourage the Reserve Bank and suggests that they may raise rates earlier than we had anticipated. However, we still... 7th 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 Data Response Retail Sales (Sep./Q3) The subdued rise in real retail sales in the third quarter means that consumer spending growth probably slowed. While falling petrol prices should provide some relief to households soon, we think that... 2nd November 2018 · 1 min read
