Major bank ABS believes that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will cut the official cash rate by 0.5% at next week’s monetary policy meeting. This would lower the official cash rate to 3.75%, down from last year’s peak of 5.5%. ASB expects two further 0.25% cuts in April and May and a 3.25% endpoint.
In October 2024, it was revealed that Victorian taxpayers paid more than $32.9 million to 102 executives working on the Suburban Rail Loop Authority (SRLA), averaging $322,000 a head. “It seems pretty clear from the annual report that we don’t have a railway line as much as we have a gravy train”, former Liberal Opposition
Gotti is having a baby, which tells you this is a good thing. The Greens will require big banks to offer all residential home borrowers a “homekeeper” loan facility which carries an interest rate of 1 per cent above the Reserve Bank’s cash rate. Investment and holiday home borrowers will not be entitled to the
Australia’s rental crisis appeared to be easing after CoreLogic and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported a marked easing in rental growth. However, the latest rental vacancy data from SQM Research suggests that the rental crisis has resumed. Following a period of rental easing during the second half of 2024, the national vacancy rate
The former Coalition government’s Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements (BAC) program ran from October 2020 to June 2022 and was designed to turbocharge trainee and apprenticeship numbers coming out of the pandemic. The scheme allowed retail and hospitality businesses to claim up to $28,000 for first-year trainees and up to $6000 for a second year. Like most
Thar she blows. Cyclone Zelia, a Cat5 monster, with wind speed approaching 320km/h building off the warmest seasonal waters since records began. There’s going to be some disruption. That said, it appears to be largely priced already, with iron ore completely dislocated from steel. Short is still the better part of long here, barring a
The financial woes of the Victorian government are well documented. The state had the nation’s highest per capita net debt in 2023-24 and the worst (AA) credit rating. The trajectory of Victoria’s debt is also concerning. The major ratings agencies—S&P and Moody’s—warned that they could further downgrade Victoria’s credit rating if debt levels are not
Goldman’s excellent Andrew Boak takes on the third rail of Aussie economics. Looking at the labour market, some indicators like employment growth, labour force participation and job vacancies do remain strong and appear to work against the case for easier monetary policy – however, our analysis highlights three reasons why these measures are overstating the
Energy buffoonery is an LNP speciality. Energy bills could rise by nearly 70% over the next 10 years under current government policy, a new report has estimated – findings likely to be seized on by the Coalition as it pushes its alternative plan. The federal Labor government has set the aggressive target of having renewable
Stock markets are essentially ignoring Trump’s tariff plans and keep heading higher across both sides of the Atlantic with an expectation of that positivity flowing over here in Asia for the last trading day of the week. The latest PPI data saw the USD give up ground against most of the undollars with a violent