Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Outlook for labour market remains challenging The recent weakness in economic activity should start to weigh on jobs growth before long, pushing up the unemployment rate further and resulting in weaker wage growth. While a softer labour market... 16th August 2019 · 3 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Labour Market (Jul.) The strong rise in employment in July failed to make any inroads into the pool of unemployed workers. Employment growth is set to falter, pushing up the unemployment rate further before long. 15th August 2019 · 2 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Wage Price Index (Q2) Wage growth treaded water in the second quarter and the recent loosening of the labour market suggests it will fall to 2% before long. 14th August 2019 · 2 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Impending house supply shortages to support prices The recent slump in dwelling starts means that housing supply will fall short of demand from next year. That suggests that house prices will continue to rise over the coming months. 8th August 2019 · 2 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Don’t worry, there’s still more “in the tin” The 50 basis point cut by the RBNZ took markets by surprise this week and we now expect the Bank to cut rates to 0.75% by early next year. If the economic outlook deteriorates by considerably more... 8th August 2019 · 6 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update RBA not done easing yet The RBA adopted an easing bias when it left interest rates unchanged today. With the labour market set to loosen further, we expect the Bank to slash rates to 0.5% by early-2020. 6th August 2019 · 3 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response International Trade (Jun.) We estimate that net trade boosted GDP growth in Q2, providing a glimmer of hope amidst the bleak domestic outlook. 6th August 2019 · 2 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Bond yields crashing to new lows Economic data this week confirmed that the Australian economy continues to underperform. Meanwhile, bond yields have been in freefall. In part, that reflects Governor Lowe’s comments last week that... 2nd August 2019 · 8 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Retail Sales (Jun./ Q2) The weakness in real retail sales in Q2 suggests consumption growth remained sluggish in the second quarter. That’s one reason why we expect GDP growth to slow from 2.8% in 2018 to just 1.5% this year... 2nd August 2019 · 2 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response CoreLogic House Prices (Jul.) House prices appear to be bottoming with an average increase in prices across the eight capital cities in July. We expect prices will remain around this level for the rest of 2019 before rising by 3%... 1st August 2019 · 2 mins read
RBA Watch RBA to take a breather before cutting rates further We expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to take a breather and leave rates on hold at 1.0% at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday the 6th of August following the back to back rate cuts in June and July... 31st July 2019 · 7 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Consumer Prices (Q2) Underlying inflation remained subdued in the second quarter and we think increasing spare capacity in the Australian economy means it will fall further below the RBA’s 2-3% target over the next year. 31st July 2019 · 2 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack Falling profitability to weigh on investment The slowdown in domestic economic activity along with global trade tensions is becoming more of a concern for businesses in both countries. That means that sentiment has not been bolstered by the... 30th July 2019 · 10 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Treasurer unlikely to shift the goal posts The Treasurer is currently reviewing the RBA’s inflation target before he signs the Statement on the Conduct of Monetary Policy. We doubt there will be any major changes and Governor Lowe gave a... 26th July 2019 · 6 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update Benefits from lower company tax rate would be small Australia’s corporate tax rate remains one of the highest in the world. However, the boost to GDP growth from lowering it towards the levels seen elsewhere would probably be quite small. 24th July 2019 · 4 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update State infrastructure spending won’t come to the rescue The federal government has urged state governments to step up infrastructure spending. But given the deterioration in their finances, we suspect that states are more likely to reduce capital spending. 22nd July 2019 · 2 mins read
