Australia’s economy suffered a lost decade in the 2010s amid the collapse in per capita GDP and productivity growth. This decade is shaping up as another lost decade, with the economy trapped in a long per capita recession amid the worst labour productivity growth in the advanced world. The August Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP)
We’ve gone from avoiding the only productivity question that matters, the impacts of mass immigration on capital shallowing. To a vested interest scramble. To the do-nothing PM shutting it all down. It’s a farce, as it was always going to be, and now we’re focused on just one thing: meeting the centrally planned dwelling construction
A staid night on the economic calendar with Wall Street closing at new record highs while European stocks played catchup as it seems the impact of US inflation is being discounted sharply by market players while the Fed continues to signal caution. The USD remains on the ropes against all the majors with Euro hitting
OECD data shows that Australia has experienced the largest decline in real per capita household disposable incomes in the developed world. The March quarter national accounts release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that annual real per capita household disposable income was tracking 8.2% below its Q2 2022 peak: Tuesday’s Statement of Monetary
Asian share markets are generally boisterous in correlation with the equally euphoric Wall Street which was able to swing a higher domestic inflation print into an increased probability of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September. Currency-land remains stagnant however with the USD losing out against most of the majors as Euro
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are massively subsidised in Australia. The Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption for BEVs costs the federal government more than $500 million in lost tax revenue each year—a figure that will increase alongside the take-up of BEVs. Under the FBT exemption, somebody leasing a $60,000 car can save more than $12,000 per
Honestly, we couldn’t cook a snag at a barbie, these days. Ross Gittins has finally discovered Australia’s number one economic problem. Or, rather, he’s aping someone else’s take. SMH. Earlier this year, the boss of the Australia Institute, Dr Richard Denniss, caused a stir by claiming that the government takes more money from uni students
Albo is not a policy coward. He is a do-nothing backroom bovver boy with the economic instincts of a brick. Jim Chalmers knows better what to do, but he is a policy coward. It is a worst-case scenario for living standards. AFR. Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers held private talks to agree on the need
There is accumulating bad news in the Aussie jobs market. As we know, there is supposed to be a handoff underway from public to private sector jobs. But it isn’t happening. Moreover, AI appears to be hitting entry-level positions for youth, a key job leading indicator. We also know that it takes roughly 25k per
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released wage growth data for Q2 2025, which came in slightly above the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) forecasts outlined in its August Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP): Nationally, wages increased by 0.8% in the second quarter, resulting in a year-on-year growth of 3.4%. Wages in the private sector