Stats NZ released migration data for October, which showed that large numbers of Kiwis continue to leave, mostly for Australia. Net migration was only 11,929 in the year to October, down from a net gain of 35,400 in the October 2024 year. The current net migration inflow is a fraction of the circa 130,000 peak in
Amidst the ongoing debate over the future of Ukraine and whether the United States will force peace terms on the war-weary nation, Europe’s leaders are deeply considering ratcheting up the stakes in their ongoing battle with Washington. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, European governments are considering a drastic step, dumping huge quantities
IEEFA wants Albo to waste another $1bn on green iron. As Australia pours $1 billion into its Green Iron Investment Fund, it can learn important lessons from the US and EU, where several low-emissions steel projects backed by capital grants were subsequently cancelled or delayed. Projects with a “gas first, green hydrogen later” approach struggled,
China printed a bit of inflation in October, but it was pretty obviously seasonal. There is bugger all momentum in prices. The PPI was worse, though it also fell over the line in the month. Anti-involution has dented deflation but it is temporary. Bloomberg has some great charts on the great deflation. Rise of
It is time to shutter the ABC. Flag burning should be criminalised, immigration should be capped based on housing supply, and the ABC and SBS should be sold and replaced by a taxpayer-funded broadcaster only for regional and outback Australia, according to resolutions to be debated at the Liberal National Party’s state council this weekend.
Last week, I reported an AFR analysis of 16 financial reports from federal agencies, which revealed that 14 had unbudgeted increases in staff expenses totaling $841 million. Budget watcher Chris Richardson warned that the wage blowout could threaten the federal budget’s March forecast of a $42 billion deficit for this financial year, as could the billions
With the election of Zohran Mamdani to the office of Mayor of New York, an event thought practically impossible just a few decades ago has come to pass: the most populous city in the United States and the centre of the financial world has an avowed socialist as its mayor. His victory speech possessed themes
OMG. The economists are panicking. “Interest rate cuts are off the table,” Mr Bloxham said. “The problem is that productivity is so weak that supply is constrained. So as input costs such as labour and energy rise there is no equal increase in output.” UBS economist George Tharenou said the underlying inflation rate would overshoot
Like other advanced nations, Australia is facing pressures from an ageing population. The federal government has tried to mitigate these ageing pressures by running a high immigration policy to mitigate labour shortages and increase the number of taxpayers. Former senior immigration department bureaucrat Abul Rizvi believes that Australia’s annual net overseas migration will average 300,000
The housing market appears to have lost some momentum due to the recent inflation shock and expectations that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will keep interest rates on hold for the foreseeable future. Cotality’s daily dwelling values index continues to show the strongest growth in over two years, measured on a rolling 28-day basis: