The continuing decline in Australia’s productivity was one of the most important data points from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Q4 national accounts released this week. Labour productivity (GDP per hour worked) fell by 0.1%, which follows declines of 0.7% and 0.5% in the previous two quarters, respectively. This lowered Australia’s labour productivity to
Thursday’s dwelling approvals data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) suggested that the nation’s housing shortage continues to worsen. In January, only 15,142 homes were approved for construction, nearly 25% below the Albanese government’s housing target, requiring 20,000 homes to be built monthly for five consecutive years. In the 12 months to January, 174,942
DXY is still getting pummeled. EUR is taking the lift up. All things considered, AUD is still weak. Can’t catch EUR, catch dislocate DXY. Lead boots! Break, baby, break! Metals relation sluggish outside copper. Miners a bit of life. EM still meh. Junk turning a little threatening. Yields sticky. Stocks were hammered again. The EUR
Aside from oil, Australia has almost every natural resource the world requires. Australia has significant reserves of coal, gas, uranium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and lithium. Over the past two decades, Australia has reaped the greatest benefit from global commodity prices. The following chart from independent economist Tarric Brooker shows the extraordinary growth in Australian resources
AUD/USD EUR/USD USD/JPY GBP/USD Gold WTI Brent Australia 200 US S&P 500 UK 100 Japan 225
The post Macro Afternoon: 6 March 2025 appeared first on MacroBusiness.
By Stephen Saunders At times, Canberra is another world. From its Press Gallery comes this Financial Review bedtime-story of “best performer” Jim Chalmers with his “disdain for” inequality. The 28 February AFR gushes for the “smartest person” in the room and his enthralling (who among average Australians even cares?) insider skirmishes with the Reserve Bank.
The most recidivist liar in the parliament is Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers. Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Australian economy has turned a corner after the strongest GDP growth figures since the pandemic, but economists say any recovery will be shallow as long as productivity remains stuck at 2016 levels and business investment stays tepid. The
Recent polling undertaken by SEC Newgate Australia suggested that Victorians do not see the $200 billion Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) as a high-priority project. The Orwellian Victorian Labor government has responded with propaganda, declaring the SRL “Australia’s largest housing project”: The gaslighting is unbelievable. The SRL is a rail project, and not a very good
It has been a busy few weeks in geopolitics. Late last week, we changed our portfolio allocation to pull back on stocks in our tactical funds. There are a broad number of reasons that I will discuss in podcasts and the performance report (later this week). The headline is that there is growing execution risk
Credit Agricole lists the top ten priorities of the new yawnulus package. The ten major government work tasks for the year: Boost consumption and stimulate domestic demand by increasing household income and boosting consumption in the cultural, tourism & sports sectors. China will continue to support consumer goods trade-in programmes as well as investment in