Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Australian economy is not ‘back on track’ Australia’s economy may be past the worst but we still expect GDP growth to fall short of potential over the coming year. That means that unemployment will probably rise further, putting downward... 6th December 2019 · 4 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update New Zealand - Stable financial system allows RBNZ to cut rates The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s decision to leave mortgage lending restrictions unchanged and tighten capital requirements means that lending and house prices are unlikely to surge in 2020. As such... 5th December 2019 · 4 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Two cuts by the RBA won’t be enough The Governor of the RBA in a speech this week confirmed that the floor for interest rates is 0.25%. While that announcement came as a surprise to some analysts, it was in line with our own thinking... 29th November 2019 · 8 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Government flipflops on fiscal stimulus The government has flipped on its stance that the previous tax cuts were sufficient to stimulate that economy, announcing fresh fiscal stimulus in the form of infrastructure spending this week. But at... 22nd November 2019 · 5 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack QE will result in lower bond yields in Australia The decline in bond yields in Australia and New Zealand throughout 2019 has paused in recent months following optimism about a potential trade deal between the US and China and hawkish language from... 21st November 2019 · 10 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Labour market will remain RBA’s headache We wouldn’t read too much into October’s largest fall in employment in three years as the monthly data are volatile. But we still expect the unemployment rate to rise in the coming months as the... 15th November 2019 · 3 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update New Zealand - RBNZ to cut rates to 0.5% in 2020 The Reserve Bank of New Zealand sounded cautious when it left rates on hold today and we believe that a deterioration in the economy will force the Bank to 0.5% by early next year. 13th November 2019 · 3 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly GDP growth isn’t picking up The decline in capital goods imports over the past year suggests that business investment is set to fall further in the second half of the year . What's more, the fall in real retail sales in Q3 point... 8th November 2019 · 6 mins read
RBNZ Watch New Zealand - RBNZ will cut further, but not until next year The economic data have been better than the Bank anticipated in their last set of forecasts in August so we suspect the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) will leave rates on hold at its meeting on... 6th November 2019 · 7 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand - Labour Market (Q3) The rise in the unemployment rate to 4.2% in Q3 only reverses the decline in Q2 so we doubt the RBNZ will be too worried at this stage. 5th November 2019 · 2 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus What will New Zealand’s policymakers do in a crisis? Our central scenario is that cutting interest rates to 0.5% will be enough to weather the economic slowdown in 2020. And if required, fiscal policy and macroprudential tools could be used to help... 5th November 2019 · 18 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Strong goods inflation probably won’t last The resilience in Q3 inflation was driven by the strongest increase in goods prices in a decade. But with import price growth now slowing, we think that strength won’t last. Meanwhile, we’ve lifted... 1st November 2019 · 7 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack IMF too optimistic on Australia and New Zealand In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF predicted Australia’s economy to expand by 1.7% in 2019 and by 2.3% in 2020. While the 2019 forecast is consistent with our own expectations, their... 31st October 2019 · 10 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Lack of fiscal stimulus will force the RBA’s hand The new Secretary to the Treasury endorsed the government’s hands-off approach to fiscal policy this week. We suspect the Australian government could increase spending significantly to support the... 25th October 2019 · 5 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus RBA to launch QE as inflation weakens further Underlying inflation was moored well below the lower end of the RBA’s 2-3% target band even as the housing market was booming and the labour market was tightening. With the unemployment rate set to... 21st October 2019 · 17 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly RBA will eventually push the QE button The drop in the unemployment rate in September means that the RBA won’t cut interest rates in November. But we still expect the labour market and underlying inflation to weaken over the coming months... 18th October 2019 · 3 mins read
