Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Prices (Q2) The RBA will probably look through the decline in headline inflation in the second quarter, especially given that underlying price pressures were slightly stronger than it had anticipated. That said... 26th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Meteoric rise in the dollar will soon run out of fizz The recent rise in the Australian dollar to a two-and-a-half year high of just under US$0.80 has been meteoric. But while the dollar may orbit around that level for a bit, we don't think it will be... 21st July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Labour Market (Jun.) The surge in full-time jobs in June is likely to fuel growing expectations that the RBA will begin to raise interest rates by the first half of 2018. But despite this latest improvement there is still... 20th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly What’s driving the divergence in confidence? The gap between consumer and business confidence has widened further in recent months as rising profits have made firms increasingly optimistic while subdued wage growth has kept households... 14th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Consumer Confidence (Jul.) While the Westpac measure of consumer confidence nudged up in July, it remains below the long-run average and is consistent with a further slowdown in real consumption growth ahead. 12th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus Consumption by sector: winners and losers While we expect that overall consumption growth will slow further this year and remain subdued in 2018 as well, not all areas of spending are equally vulnerable. Past behaviour suggests that spending... 10th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Household indebtedness weighs on the economic outlook The rising level of household debt in Australia presents a clear risk to the economic outlook and helps in part to explain why we expect the pace of consumer spending to slow this year. What’s more... 7th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response International Trade (May) The trade surplus bounced back in May as coal exports returned to more normal levels following a sharp fall in April as a result of disruptions caused by Cyclone Debbie. As such, at this stage it... 6th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update RBA’s fears about household indebtedness persist The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left interest rates on hold at 1.5% for the tenth consecutive meeting today and retained its fairly optimistic tone on the outlook for economic growth in the... 4th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Retail Sales (May) The stronger than expected rise in retail sales values in May, alongside the surge in sales in April, suggests that real consumption growth accelerated in the second quarter. That said, we doubt this... 4th July 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Slow wage growth to persist despite strong job growth While the recent run of positive news on the health of the Australian labour market is certainly encouraging, it doesn’t alter the bigger picture that there is still plenty of spare capacity. This... 30th June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Chart Pack Growth to remain subdued in Australia While GDP growth in both Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter was weaker than most had anticipated, this was partly the result of temporary factors that will fade. Nonetheless, while the... 29th June 2017 · 1 min read
RBA Watch Rate hikes a long way off despite improving labour market The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will almost certainly keep interest rates on hold at 1.50% when it meets on Tuesday 4 th July. And while the sustained improvement in the labour market in recent... 27th June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly All Blacks to beat British Lions in economic tests If the relative performance of the economies of New Zealand and the UK/Ireland over the next few years is anything to go by, the All Blacks will beat the British & Irish Lions 2-1 in the rugby test... 23rd June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia ABS House Prices (Q1) The first quarter of this year will probably go down in history as the point at which house price inflation peaked. Policymakers have engineered the slowdown that appears to be underway, but there’s... 20th June 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Energy price hikes pile more pressure on households The utility bills of Australian households won’t rise by as much as the eye-watering 20% figure that has been catching the headlines as not all retailers have raised prices by that much and as prices... 16th June 2017 · 1 min read
