By Belinda Allen, head of Australian economics at CBA: The August monthly CPI surprised to the upside. There is clear upside risk to Q3 25 CPI and makes a November RBA rate cut not a done deal. The week ahead brings the RBA Monetary Policy Board meeting. We expect the cash rate to remain steady
Australian house prices are already at their highest level in history and are beginning to surge higher. According to Cotality, last week’s combined final auction clearance rate rose to 71.6%, which was the capital cities’ highest result since early June 2023 (73.1%). It was also the third time in five weeks that the final clearance
International Reading: Scott Bessent tells NYC to ‘drop dead’ while he arranges a $20b swap line for Argentina’s chainsaw-wielding, dog-cloning president – Fortune Trump Admits Farmers Are Getting Screwed By His Tariffs – Daily Beast The man Trump nominated to undermine Fed independence once wrote a scathing critique of how the Fed wasn’t independent enough
‘C’mon Queenslanders, you know it’s what your heart craves…..’ AUD/USD EUR/USD USD/JPY GBP/USD Gold WTI Brent Australia 200 US S&P 500 UK 100 Japan 225 Friday evening video selection Mearsheimer and Hugh White – good discussion Varoufakis and Technofeudalism Jack Ma and the global economy The BOM Trump Russia
After years of watching residents flee to the north, we ‘Mexicans’ in Victoria are beginning to see a net flow of Queenslanders down south. Last week’s Q1 2025 population data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, Victoria recorded a net inflow of
Recently, AMP Chief Economist Shane Oliver posted the chart below on Twitter (also known as X) detailing the path of rental vacancy rates and asking rents since the early 1980s. As I have somewhat crudely illustrated in the chart below, with the three blue circles, there have been three major surges in asking rents over
Australia’s draconian social media ban for under-16s has won praise from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at the United Nations, who labelled it “plain common sense”. Australia held an overnight event on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York to explain the rationale for the ban and build global support
In the debate surrounding the impact of older demographics and in particular Baby Boomers on the housing market, emotions often run high, with things getting heated and facts often taking a back seat. At one extreme, some younger Australians accuse Baby Boomers of effectively kicking the ladder back after they used it. At the other
BMI—A Fitch Solutions Company—has published an analysis of the federal budget, which forecasts that Australia’s budget balance will fall into deficit in FY2025 (July to June) as “the government increases spending in response to the persistent cost-of-living crisis”. BMI forecasts a deficit of 1.0% and 0.5% in FY2025 and FY2026, respectively. “For FY2025, we forecast
As 2025 unfolds, Australia finds itself in a peculiar position. The nation is experiencing a housing shortage, which the government acknowledges is worsening. The Albanese government’s National Housing Supply and Affordability Council forecasts that growth in housing demand will outstrip supply throughout 2023-24, 2024-25, and will continue to do so through to 2028-29. Yet despite