Via Westpac: Sentiment has recovered after a shaky start to the year. The previous survey in January had shown a sharp pull back, the Index dipping into pessimistic territory for the first time since late 2017. The February lift takes the Index back into ‘cautiously optimistic’ territory. While that may indicate some of last month’s
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Yesterday’s NAB survey rebound was enough to trigger an Australian dollar rally but it’s not clear why, via Westpac: The massive services sector is in free fall: Capex hit news lows. Jobs were better: The industry view was OK but we know weakness is coming in construction. And the state view was sick as the
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From SBS News: Bankers found guilty of serious corporate crimes could be jailed for up to 15 years and shonky corporations may face fines of up to $525 million, under legislation proposed by Labor. In the wake of the damning banking royal commission, the federal party wants to significantly increase penalties against financial institutions who
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By Leith van Onselen CoreLogic has released its December Quarter Economic Review, which contains some interesting titbits on the housing market. A highlight is the below chart showing that apartments under construction are hovering at record high levels, which has raised settlement risk: At the end of the September 2018 quarter there 227,186 dwellings under
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Stock markets continued to rally in January and the start of February to recover most of the losses from late 2018, at the same time Australian government bonds have begun to price a slowing Australian economy which led to a strong performance from all of our portfolios. International +4.3%, Tactical Growth +3.4% and Tactical Foundation +2.2%
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Well…of course it does. It doesn’t have any branches to distribute its mortgages, via The Australian: Macquarie chief Shemara Wikramanayake has backed the role mortgage brokers play for borrowers, acknowledging that the Hayne royal commission would prompt smaller banks to rethink distribution and more closely assess what customers would pay for loans. Commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s
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Bank of England chief Mark Carney has some bad news for Australia, warning that: “(China) are not going to bail us out this time, I absolutely agree,” Carney said when asked about the ability of the world’s second-biggest economy to compensate for a slowdown in richer nations. But the most likely outcome was that the
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Via AFR: Colourful Melbourne property speculator and local councillor Intaj Khan has put a portfolio of four housing sites in the city’s west on the market with expectations they could sell for almost $60 million. Cr Khan, who was found guilty of eight breaches of his duties as a Wyndham City councillor last year and
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Missed this earlier in the week. Ross Gittins is helping lift Australian economic discourse for once: [A rate cut] isn’t [imminent]. It isn’t because, as he made plain in a speech on Wednesday – and reiterated in the statement on monetary policy on Friday – he remains confident the economy has slowed a bit, but no worse. His revised
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By Leith van Onselen I have noted previously how China’s economy is facing stiff headwinds from an ageing population (see here, here, here, and here). Essentially, China’s ageing problem stems from its ‘one child policy’, which was brought into effect in the early-1970s and is credited with preventing around 400 million births from 1979 to
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