Last week, following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to lift the official cash rate (OCR) by 0.25%, Treasurer Jim Chalmers claimed that excessive private sector demand was behind Australia’s high inflation. In a media release directly following the RBA’s decision, Treasurer Chalmers said “the Board’s statement today does not mention government spending. It
Charts from TME. There are a lot of wild moves closing out the week. JPM gross hammered. Huge shorts. Social media sentiment collapsed. Volatility spiked. However, instos are still all-in with no cash. Equities, equities, equities! Leverage is virtually unchanged. While Michael Hartnett’s risk monitor remains in extreme sell. Where there has been progress under
In 2003, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released its Population Projections 2002 to 2101, which contained a baseline (Series B) forecast for Australia’s population of 26.4 million by 2051, based on an assumed net overseas migration (NOM) of 100,000 annually. The following table illustrates the ABS’s 2003 population projections for Australia’s capital cities: Sydney
Australia will need to find a sugar daddy because the Chinese version has lost its mojo. New property sales are terrible to start the year. The secondary market is, at least, showing some signs that panic selling is over, with lower transaction volumes, but prices are still falling. Consumer confidence is precisely where you would
Over the coming decades, Australia will require a massive expansion in electricity supplies. First, the nation’s population is officially projected to grow by nearly 50% over the next 40 years, implying a commensurate increase in household energy requirements (in addition to commercial). Second, Australia is expected to build dozens, if not hundreds, of data centres
Over the weekend, the Coalition got the band back together just in time to tear it apart. Angus Taylor’s supporters are expected to use the dismal polling figures to push for a spill of the Liberal leadership this week. Newspoll reports that the Coalition’s primary vote has fallen to 18%, while One Nation’s voter support
Back in 2020, China exported around 1 million vehicles, well behind the automotive powerhouses of South Korea, Japan, and Germany, and not too dissimilar to where exports stood at the start of the 2010s. Then in 2021, things began to change extremely rapidly. The pace of Chinese car exports began an absolutely meteoric rise, rapidly
The ferrous jaws are closing on a monthly basis. There’s more work to do on the daily chart, but clearly, we are getting there. Scuttlebut is weak. “Iron ore’s own supply-demand fundamentals remain weak,” said Steven Yu, a researcher at consultancy Mysteel. Hot-metal output at mills had been slower that expected before the week-long holiday
Australian housing has never been this expensive. According to Cotality’s latest housing affordability report, the nation’s median dwelling price was valued at a record 8.2 times median household income in the September quarter of 2025, up from 6.4 times the median income in the September quarter of 2019. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) also
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to hike the official cash rate by 0.25% last week has failed to dampen buyer enthusiasm in the housing market. According to Cotality, the nation’s preliminary auction clearance rate rose to 73.7%, up from 69.7% last weekend. It was also significantly higher than the 64.2% preliminary clearance rate