The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has cut the official cash rate by 1.75% to 3.75% over the past six months. New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.7% in the Q4 2024 quarter, following a 1.1% decrease in the Q3 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ on Tuesday. The result was
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Emmanuel Macron announced an increase in military spending on Wednesday evening, specifying that it would not be financed by tax increases and by preparing the French for further budget cuts. Mobilizing savings is reportedly under consideration. For its part, the left is arguing, on the contrary, for the wealthiest to contribute.
ABS Labour Force today was OK at the headline level but sucked underneath. In seasonally adjusted terms, in February 2025: unemployment rate remained at 4.1%. participation rate decreased to 66.8%. employment decreased to 14,513,200. employment to population ratio decreased to 64.1%. underemployment rate decreased to 5.9%. monthly hours worked decreased to 1,973 million. full-time employment
Deloitte Access Economics has forecast that the federal budget will spend $99 billion off-budget over the next four years, with off-budget spending referring to when governments label spending as an investment rather than an expense. Deloitte Access Economics’ prediction represents a $10 billion increase on the December Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), due to
A nice piece here from Deutsche Bank on the EUR. Now that the historic German fiscal shift has been voted through, the market focus will move to the April 2nd tariff announcement from the US. How do we think about the impact in the context of our bullish EUR/USD view? As we wrote last month
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Last week, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey pushed back against caps on international students, claiming such students are “economic assets to be treasured, not as a problem to be capped”. Mookhey’s comments came as his state grapples with an unprecedented rental crisis. Sydney’s rents have exploded since the international border was reopened in late 2021, which
Markets took a tumble this month. During downturns there are plenty of mistakes that investors make and things that they should be doing. Join us this week as Nucleus Wealth’s Chief Investment Officer, Damien Klassen dive into the most common mistakes and things you should be doing in your portfolio. Can’t make it to the
Steel prices are in free fall as tariffs mount. The iron ore jaws are wide. Macquarie has thrown in the towel now. Macquarie, a global financial services group, predicted the seaborne iron ore market will be in surplus by about 50 million tons this year as China is likely to cut steel production. If steel
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And now for a dose of European exceptionalism! The Market Ear. The Old Country is now the new hot darling Everything is going Europe’s way right now. Stocks are outperforming, inflows have just started, there are macro green-shoots and valuations are still cheap. Let’s once again revisit the new darling macro case that is Europe.
I sent a manuscript off yesterday, which was good, and I would’ve liked to have swung into another one today. Probably the edits on the last of the Cruel Stars novels. But I have an army of tradesmen heading my way. Some of it is cyclone-related. Guys coming out to do insurance work. And some of it is just kitchen maintenance. We’re replacing the oven after 20 years and the dishwasher after 5 or 6, which seems to be about as long as a dishwasher lasts these days. So I'm in my office downstairs, but I've got one ear trained on the front gate.
The Albanese government has set a fantastical target of building 1.2 million homes over five years. To meet this target, Australia would need to build many shoebox apartments. New South Wales and Victoria have introduced planning reforms allowing the blanket construction of high-rise towers across Sydney and Melbourne activity centres. The widespread push for density