Wetspac with the note. Westpac Consumer Sentiment Index up 5.7% to 98.5 in August. • RBA’s third rate cut for the year provides a clear boost. • Long period of pessimism finally coming to an end. • Consumers less anxious about finances, cautiously positive on economy. • Sentiment lift broad-based, not just confined to those
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Amidst the release of the Reserve Bank’s August Statement on Monetary Policy and the Albanese government’s upcoming roundtable summit, the issue of productivity growth has become a source of great debate and some controversy. On Twitter (also known as X), Nationals Senator Matt Canavan posted a chart from the Australian Financial Review showing productivity growth
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky hailed Monday’s negotiations with US President Donald Trump as the best meeting they have ever had.
The ferrous complex has flamed out as we approach the Beijing warmongering season. Channel checks by Goldman are OK. Orderbook trend- The forward orderbooks of most steel mills were mostly flat MoM in Aug, in line with seasonality. High-frequency weekly data suggests current steel demand down by 2.8% yoy for construction steel and up 5.1%
At the end of 2024, Australian rental affordability was tracking a record low, according to Cotality (formerly Corelogic), with the median household required to spend 31% of their income on renting the median home. Cotality’s latest quarterly rental also reported that national median rents have risen by 43% over the last five years, causing the average
Will Idiot Albo and Chicken Chalmers do something? AFR. BlueScope chief executive Mark Vassella has warned that large parts of Australia’s manufacturing sector could be forced to shut because of high gas prices, which also threaten the steelmaker’s plans to revive the loss-making Whyalla plant. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Future Made in Australia strategy to
Last night was all about geopolitics with an absence of economic releases for markets to pivot on, the result being a staid session on Wall Street and across the Atlantic as European stocks pulled back slightly. Markets are waiting for the Jackson Hole conference later in the week with the USD pushing slightly higher overnight
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Nearly a decade ago, in 2016, then Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chairman, Rod Sims, delivered a speech on the growing concentration of Australian industry. New research undertaken by Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) economists has concluded that increased market concentration in some sectors of the economy has weighed on productivity. The RBA economists found
Following his meeting with Ukraine’s Zelensky, US President Donald Trump declared that there are decent odds of finally ending the Ukrainian conflict.
He added that:
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Zelensky want to resolve the Ukrainian conflict
European leaders also want peace in the region
If it weren’t so serious, it would be laughable. A code of conduct for a writers’ festival?
Yet that was the requirement asked of authors if they wanted, after having been invited, to take part in one section of the Bendigo Writers Festival. Understandably, many refused and did not attend.