Australia & New Zealand Data Response Labour Market (Sep.) The larger than expected rise in employment in September marks the seventh consecutive month of strong job gains in Australia and leaves little doubt about the current health of the labour market... 19th October 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly How big will the rebound in business investment be? While we are becoming more optimistic on the outlook for non-mining business investment in Australia following years of disappointing growth, we doubt the pick-up will be as strong as business surveys... 13th October 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus When will interest rates rise? We believe the financial markets have gone too far by pricing in a strong possibility that the Reserve Bank of Australia will raise interest rates twice next year, from 1.5% to 2.0%. Economic... 12th October 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Confidence (Oct.) The Westpac measure of consumer confidence leapt to its highest level in a year in October, which was a welcome sight given the recent run of weak data on household spending. That said, we remain... 11th October 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update Strong jobs growth isn’t a silver bullet for households The sizeable pick-up in employment growth in recent months presents an upside risk to our forecast that consumption growth will slow notably this year. But in light of the other headwinds restraining... 9th October 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Retail weakness a worry, but not a disaster The recent slump in retail sales in Australia suggests that the slowdown in consumption growth that we have been warning about is underway. But it’s not a disaster for the economy as an associated... 6th October 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Retail Sales & International Trade (Aug.) The net result of the retail sales and international trade data for August isn’t a disaster for the overall economy. But the weakness in retail sales supports our long-held view that a slowdown in... 5th October 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update RBA becoming more confident in the economy The Reserve Bank of Australia may have left interest rates at 1.5% for the 14th month today, but its growing confidence in the outlook for activity and inflation may mean it will be prepared to signal... 3rd October 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Jobs growth to be concentrated in highly paid sectors While leading labour market indicators in Australia continue to point a decent pace of employment growth ahead, it is not just the rate of jobs growth that matters but also the composition. And at... 29th September 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack Turning point? The encouraging signs about the health of the Australian economy have continued over the past month, with employment growth gathering pace and the outlook for business investment improving. (See Chart... 28th September 2017 · 1 min read
RBA Watch The markets are too hawkish We believe that the financial markets are wrong to price in the possibility that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will raise interest rates twice next year. Admittedly, it is possible that after... 26th September 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly A solid first year from Governor Lowe Philip Lowe has notched up an impressive scorecard in his first year as Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, but greater challenges lie ahead. There are reasons to believe that economic growth... 22nd September 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus How overvalued is housing? Once you take into account the structural decline in interest rates over the past 40 years, housing in Australia isn’t as overvalued as some analysts have suggested. In fact, in most capital cities it... 20th September 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response ABS House Prices (Q2) Even though house price inflation on the ABS measure held steady at 10.2% in the second quarter, there are some signs beneath the surface that prices have started to lose momentum. Other forward... 19th September 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly What does the surge in full-time jobs mean for wages? While the acceleration in full-time jobs growth in Australia since the start of the year is clearly a positive development for income and consumption growth, the impact on wage growth and inflation is... 15th September 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update Near-term downside risks to dollar declining The recent rise of the Australian dollar to US$0.80 and developments overseas have led us to revise up our end-year forecast from US$0.70 to US$0.75. But we still believe that a fall in iron ore... 15th September 2017 · 1 min read
