I like Greg Jericho from The Guardian and The Australia Institute. I agree with his position on most issues. But one area where we vehemently disagree is immigration. Jericho almost never mentions the negative impacts of high immigration on the economy. And when he does mention immigration, it is usually to besmirch opponents to high
The ABS is out with capex intentions for 2023/24 and the news is a sharp deceleration in plans. The first estimate for the next financial year was a 14% rise. That has pulled back sharply to just 6.4%: When we apply an average realisation ratio, we are probably now sitting around zero growth if not
CoreLogic has released rental data for May, which shows that rents across the major capital cities continues to rise at a blistering pace amid record tight vacancies. The vacancy rate across the combined capital cities was just 1.0% for units and 1.1% for houses in May: House rents continue to rise at a near double-digit
It has not yet entered the mind of the iMSM, and it almost certainly won’t until it is over, but the Australian terms of trade are being slaughtered as we speak and there is worse yet to come. The culprits are all of our war-benefited bulk commodities. Iron ore is crashing and will halve again
Ah yes, the sense of it all: Indonesia will consider new limits on exports of liquefied natural gas, a potential extension of trade curbs that’ve previously disrupted nickel to coal and palm oil markets. The nation wants to ensure adequate domestic gas supply and aims to balance local consumption and export commitments, according to Jodi
The excellent Gerard Minack with the note. Recession risks rise as Australian income collapses Australian household disposable income is now falling at the fastest rate ever, outside of recessions. While households have a buffer of unspent pandemic benefits, debt service payments are rising as fixed-rate mortgages expire, and renters are being squeezed in a tight
The minimum salary for temporary ‘skilled’ migrants who are sponsored by an employer will rise from $53,900 to $70,000 from 1 July, which is still $15,000 below the current median full-time income of $85,000. Aged-care providers have urged the government to exempt the sector from the new rules, contending that it will affect their ability
Iron ore futures rose yesterday and overnight on the Dalian exchange, presumably on the hope of fresh Chinese stimulus. There probably is some targeted version coming but it is not going to help steel, which is collapsing: The China Steel PMI was a complete write0ff: Judging from the steel industry PMI surveyed and released by
DXY popped and dropped last night on strong JOLTS but mixed Fed comments. EUR was hit by weaker-than-expected inflation: AUD careened through the trap door to new lows: With CNY: Oil is ready to break again, but beware the OPEC meeting: Commodities are doomed: Miners too: EM stocks are breaking down: Junk too: Treasuries were
Westpac has the details. In finer detail the index rose 0.8% in April compared to our 0.5% forecast; we assume the market median would have been around 0.4% given the 6.4%yr forecast. We had observed a moderation in the average monthly increase from 0.9%mth through the last three months of 2022 to 0.1%mth through the