Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Prices (Q4) The rebound in headline inflation in the fourth quarter of last year has been baked in the cake for some time, so the real news is that underlying inflation hardly budged at all. A continuation of... 25th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Headline reflation, underlying stagnation Signs that inflation in both Australia and New Zealand has passed its low point may give the Australian and New Zealand dollars a bit of a boost when the data for the fourth quarter are released this... 20th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack External sector won’t fuel a rapid rebound The Australian economy has started to reap some benefits from the rise in key commodity prices towards the end of last year. Most obviously, the trade balance has swung into surplus for the first... 19th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Labour Market (Dec.) While the labour market improved in December from the weakness of the third quarter, it remained worryingly fragile. This is one reason to expect 2017 to be another disappointing year for the overall... 19th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Confidence (Jan.) The Westpac measure of consumer confidence remained essentially unchanged in January, which was a disappointing result given that local equity prices have recently risen rapidly. That said, confidence... 18th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly How much will housing help? After contributing 0.5 percentage points to the annual rate of GDP growth in Australia in each of the past two years, it looks as though dwellings investment will add almost nothing to growth this... 13th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Retail Sales (Nov.) While the slower-than-expected growth in retail sales in November does suggest that the household sector may have lost a bit of momentum late in the fourth quarter, the strong start to the quarter... 10th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia International Trade (Nov.) The first trade surplus since March 2014 isn’t quite as good as it looks as it’s due to a surge in the prices of exports rather than the volume of exports. This means that net exports were probably... 6th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Dollar decline is not as good as it looks The recent weakening in the Australian dollar to a seven-month low against the US dollar won’t boost activity and inflation by as much as you may think as it has not been matched by a weakening in the... 6th January 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Hopes and risks for 2017 The range of possible economic outcomes for next year are wider than usual and it is possible that 2017 proves to be a sweet spot for both Australia and New Zealand. But it seems more likely that a... 22nd December 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack Rising risk of recession The 0.5% q/q fall in GDP in the third quarter and the weak tone of October’s international trade data have raised the chances that Australia will experience its first recession in 25 years. We wouldn... 21st December 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus Balancing the budget will be more painful The ratings agencies have shown that they are full of Christmas cheer by maintaining Australia’s AAA credit rating even though the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook revealed that the budget deficit... 19th December 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly AAA – Going, going, gone? Even if the ratings agencies were to take away Australia’s AAA credit rating immediately after the publication of the Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook on Monday, which we suspect will reveal that... 16th December 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Labour Market (Nov.) The improvement in jobs growth in recent months provides further evidence that the fall in GDP in the third quarter was a blip rather than anything more worrying. But while the lower underemployment... 15th December 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus The persistent part-time problem The recent rise in the share of people working part-time but who would like to work longer will continue to restrain wage growth for another couple of years yet. This part-time problem means that a... 14th December 2016 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Consumer Confidence (Dec.) The fall in consumer confidence to an eight-month low in December shows that households have been spooked by the decline in GDP in the third quarter. While confidence is still consistent with a decent... 14th December 2016 · 1 min read
