Wednesday’s monthly CPI indicator from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) printed significantly below expectations. The headline CPI was only 2.4%, below market expectations of 2.5% and below the midpoint of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 2-3% target band. The underlying measure, trimmed mean inflation, also fell to 2.7% and is now well within
Last week, the Albanese government pledged over $800 million in production subsidies to a green hydrogen development in remote Western Australia. This is part of an $8.7 billion federal government war chest to create incentives for green hydrogen. Labor’s Future Made in Australia (FMIA) plan, announced in 2024, provided a budget allocation of $6.7 billion
Earlier last month, I learned that a friend’s home one kilometre away had been the target of an attempted home invasion. The burglars hopped over a neighbour’s side fence and tried to force their way into the house via the back door. Fortunately, my friend awoke, made a ruckus, and the burglars fled. The following
Via the ABS. CPI analytical series Seasonally adjusted 2.4 CPI excluding volatile items* and holiday travel 2.7 Annual trimmed mean 2.7 Most are components coming off except regulated prices like education, alcohol and tobacco, and health, which will fall in due course given they are indexed to the headline benchmark, which has crashed. It’s over.
Decent output levels are keeping iron ore supported for now. There’s nothing good happening property. Compared to December, China’s on-budget fiscal revenue and off-budget land sales revenue both weakened meaningfully in January-February, more significant than the deceleration in government spending growth. Our proprietary “augmented fiscal deficit” (AFD) metric widened slightly in February vs. December on
CBA’s excellent economics team has provided a comprehensive analysis of the federal budget. Below are key extracts broken down by theme. Overview: In the near term, the key economic and fiscal aggregates in the 2025-26 Budget are largely unchanged from the last official update in December, and broadly in line with our own forecasts. The
DXY faded a little AUD lifted a little. Lead boots are at a standstill. Gold pausing. Trump lunacy has overtaken oil as he smashes Venezuela and Iran while promising cheaper petrol. Copper is insane. This is bad for everybody except Goldman Sachs. Big miners sag on. EM yawn. Junk yawn. Yields eased. Stocks firmed. I
Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers’ has released a hopeful new budget based upon some rosy assumptions. The headline numbers are realistic, but the wage price index is not going to re-accelerate unless unemployment falls more than forecast amid ongoing mass immigration of cheap Indian workers. This is a problem for revenue, especially with the mooted tax
Could it be that sense will finally prevail? ABC. Gas giants would be forced to supply more energy to the domestic energy market under gas reservation plans that could be adopted by both sides of politics in an election shootout over how best to secure more energy and drive down prices. In moves that would
A bit of Fedspeak overnight was overshadowed by the Clown Show in the White House overnight as markets remain somewhat hesitant as the April 2 deadline for Trump’s Tariff Tirade beckons. European shares were able to rebound firmly while Wall Street gave up some late gains to finish slightly higher. The USD pulled back ever