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 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 New Zealand - RBNZ turns a little more hawkish The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) lifted its inflation forecasts a little bit when it decided to leave interest rates unchanged at 1.75% today. But it still signalled that rates won’t rise until... 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
RBNZ Watch New Zealand - Don’t expect a change in rates for at least three years The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will keep interest rates unchanged at 1.75% at the policy meeting on Thursday 8th November, with recent encouraging economic data making a cut less likely. Even so, we... 1st November 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Full employment has not been achieved Even though the unemployment rate has fallen to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 5.0% estimate of the natural rate, the RBA will still want to see signs of much faster wage growth before it hikes... 19th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand - Consumer Prices (Q3) The jump in inflation from 1.5% in Q2 to 1.9% in Q3 was largely driven by higher energy prices and won’t allow the RBNZ to conclude that underlying price pressures are strengthening. While Q3’s data... 16th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economic Outlook Missing the global tightening cycle Our forecasts suggest that by the time the Reserve Banks of Australia and New Zealand get round to raising interest rates from record lows, the US Fed will already be cutting them. We think that a... 10th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update New Zealand - RBNZ keeps the faith in optimistic forecasts The Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept the faith in its relatively optimistic forecasts for the economy while leaving interest rates at 1.75% for the 22 nd month today, but you could argue that the... 27th September 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack A good year for growth The surprising strength of economic growth in the second quarter has led us to revise up our forecasts for GDP growth in the 2018 calendar year from 2.5% to 3.2% for Australia and from 2.5% to 2.7%... 26th September 2018 · 1 min read
RBNZ Watch New Zealand - Rates may not rise until late 2021 The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will keep interest rates unchanged at 1.75% at the policy meeting on Thursday 27th September and will probably acknowledge that GDP growth in Q2 was stronger than it... 20th September 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response New Zealand - Temporary respite from an easing trend The solid rise in GDP in the second quarter will give the RBNZ more confidence in its view that GDP growth will rise back above 3.0% next year. In contrast, we believe that low confidence, a soft... 20th September 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Conditions for higher wages (slowly) falling into place This week the Australian economy took one more step towards meeting the conditions that would require higher interest rates, but it may be another 12-18 months at the least before the RBA has enough... 14th September 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly The dollar, wages and the inflation target The weakening in the Australian dollar to a 19-month low will provide a small boost to CPI inflation, but it won’t solve Australia’s persistent problem of low wage growth. While lowering the RBA’s... 17th August 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update The tide may turn in favour of the dollar next year Even though both the Australian and New Zealand dollars have weakened by more than 10% this year and have pretty much hit our end-year forecasts, the risks still lie on the downside. The tide may turn... 14th August 2018 · 1 min read
