The official Q1 CPI inflation print from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that the policy-important trimmed mean inflation rate declined to 2.9% year-on-year, within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) inflation target of 2% to 3%. RBA Governor Michele Bullock’s media appearance following last month’s 0.25% rate cut suggested that she was less
DXY is breaking down again. AUD at the top of the range. Lead boots no more. Gold poised for more. Oil bought the fact. Metals are eyeing DXY. Nothing can save big miners. EM meh. Junk is worried. Yields are up as DXY is down. Markets HATE Trump tariffs. Stocks eked out gains. The
It was all about the TACO trade overnight as Wall Street rallied on an extension of Chinese tariff pauses despite a lot of vitriol between Trump and the Middle Kingdom about breaking the recent trade deal. Meanwhile the Trump regime is still waiting on “best offers” from other nations with a new Wednesday deadline which
Wind power has become a significant contributor to the electricity supply in Australia. As of September 2024, Australia had an installed wind capacity of around 13.3 GW. Wind power accounted for 13.4% (or 31.9 TWh) of Australia’s total electricity production in 2024. The Albanese government has set a target of producing 82% of Australia’s electricity
Cotality’s (formerly CoreLogic) latest housing affordability report showed that the cost of purchasing and renting a home in Sydney was the worst on record at the end of 2024, as well as the highest in the nation. As illustrated above, Sydney’s dwelling value-to-income rate was 9.8 at the end of 2024. It required a typical
More hesitation on risk markets as the weekend news of increased tensions on Chinese and US trade, including more off the cuff tariff announcements from the TACO-in-Chief unsettles the new start to the trading month. Currency markets area again winding up strength against the USD in response with the Australian dollar breaking out and accelerating
Last week, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand lowered the official cash rate (OCR) to 3.25%, down 2.25% from the recent peak. The vote in favour of cutting rates was overwhelming, with five members voting for and only one against. The Reserve Bank’s guidance, presented below, suggests that the OCR will bottom at around 2.75%.
This is a fairly accurate assessment from Bloomberg on why Australia is stuffed. They even manage to address the externalities of immigration without getting wowserish about it. A few quick points I will add: Restoring Australian manufacturing now would take a war. At 5% of GDP, it’s all but gone. Therefore, there is no productivity
University of Melbourne associate professor Milad Haghani argues that utes and SUVs should pay higher registration fees to account for the damage they do to roads because of their weight. “Bigger cars mean bigger costs for everyone else – it’s only fair those costs are reflected in how we price their use of public roads”,
Chinese property is still stuffed. Therefore, so too is Chinese consumer confidence. Those arguing China will become a consumer economy are delusional. It’s all the same thing. They throw money into local government sinkholes. They build stuff they don’t need. They trade as much as possible. And they cheat when someone tries to change it.