Westpac with the note. Leading Index growth rate ticks up to 0.12% in July. ‘Slow motion’ recovery continues to underwhelm. Main headwind coming from commodity price falls and higher AUD. Softer tone from labour market but other components lacking direction. Even with this small improvement, the Leading Index still points to sluggish growth momentum in
Australia already has the highest per capita share of international students in the developed world. As of Q2 2025, there were 821,251 people in Australia on either a temporary student visa or a graduate visa. As a result, around 3% of the nation’s population was on either a student or graduate visa in Q2 2025.
Erin Rolandsen, CEO of Angelassist, penned an article for MB on Tuesday explaining how Australia’s public service has been outsourced to Big Four consulting firms: The truth is undeniable: our parliamentary departments have been hollowed out by decades of outsourcing. Whereas they once held expertise, they are now mere husks whose only remaining function is
The sight of so many flabby central bankers running nowhere inside a rat wheel is enough to make you barf. That’s what we got yesterday in the RBA minutes. The staff’s forecasts for GDP growth in the medium term had been reduced a little because of a lower assumed rate of productivity growth to which
Risk markets continue to have second thoughts about the dovish mood at the Federal Reserve with the added volatility around the Trump regime looking to takeover the Fed’s independence itself not helping the USD. Although Euro is seeing some kickback due to French political problems, Yen, Pound Sterling and the Australian dollar are all heading
Recently a case was made that the Reserve Bank and the Albanese government did not deserve to be blamed for the deterioration in Australian living standards and real wages, due to the fact that similar trends were present throughout much of the developed world. While there is certainly truth to the idea that other advanced
Asian share markets are failing to translate the Friday night gains on Wall Street due to the seemingly dovish pivot by the US Federal Reserve as risk markets patiently wait and see what the Trump regime is up to with trying to fire members of the Board, adding to currency volatility at least. The USD
Goldman with the outlook. AUD, NZD, & CAD: Caution signs. Cyclical G10 currencies, AUD, NZD, and CAD, have underperformed in August. After touching or nearly-reaching our 3-month targets, each has doubled back weaker versus the Dollar over the past month. Risk has been under pressure and could be weighing on the more cyclical parts of
Australia’s pivot to Palestine, which has no practical implications for anything or anybody outside of Albo’s politicking, is developing into a major risk to the Australian national interest. While the nation sinks into the greatest distraction since the Rubik’s Cube, Australia’s real strategic settings are dangerously adrift, which appears to be exactly how Albo’s cowards
The state of Victoria has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. As illustrated below by Alex Joiner from IFM Investors, Victoria’s unemployment rate was 4.55% in July, 0.32% above the weighted average of the rest of the nation. The next chart from CBA plots trend unemployment rates across the states and shows that Victoria’s