The Victorian government’s financial troubles are widely documented. In 2023-24, the state had the nation’s highest per capita net debt and the lowest credit rating (AA). The trend growth in Victoria’s debt is equally alarming. The two leading international rating agencies, S&P and Moody’s, warned that if debt levels are not managed, Victoria’s credit rating
Three months ago, I questioned why the population numbers contained in the Q3 ABS national accounts differed so widely from the official Q2 population figures released one week later by the ABS: That is, the Q3 national accounts implied 656,000 population growth for 2023–24, versus 552,000 growth in the official quarterly population data. That represented
I have repeatedly labelled the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) a terrible deal for Australia that massively favours the US and disadvantages Australia. The Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU conducted a study of the Australia-US FTA, and found that a decade after signing, the agreement has diverted more trade than it
The jaws are getting stupid as steel prices are in free fall. This gap is destroying steel mill profitability. They are not overstocked with ore but they’ll need to run even tighter inventories soon to cut the price of inputs. The news flow is awful. The European Union will tighten steel import quotas to reduce
DXY is maybe going to bounce. AUD got an RBA wake up call from jobs. Lead boots continue to stroll to Mar-A-Lago. Oil CTAs threatening. Sell copper before Goldman does. Big miners caput. EM meh. Junk serene is bad news for stocks. Yields eased though. As did stocks. RBA futures have nearly added three cuts
Last night saw the Bank of England and Swiss Central Bank meetings, the latter cutting while the former is looking to ease soon as concerns over the Trump Trade War continue to mount across the financial complex. Wall Street pulled back slightly while European stocks had a broader selloff albeit still near their recent highs.
Thursday’s labour market release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) was superficially good, with the headline unemployment rate remaining at a low 4.1% in February (4.05% in unrounded terms). This meant that Australia’s headline unemployment rate remained slightly below the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) projections. That was where the good news ended, however,
China (31.5% of total), the United States (13.0% of total) and India (8.1% of total) are the world’s three largest carbon emitters. In 2023, these three nations accounted for more than half (52.6%) of the world’s carbon emissions. As illustrated above, China and India are rapidly growing their emissions while the developed world is cutting
As we know, Australian industry has been dying for decades. So much so that we leading the OCED into industrial oblivion. Now, the death of Australian industry is at hand. Bloomberg. Near the Indonesian city of Surakarta, a one-time royal capital on the island of Java that’s long been known for producing elaborate fabrics, dozens
A very mixed session across Asian stock markets despite a rebound on Wall Street overnight with steady Chinese interest rates not lifting stocks in the Middle Kingdom as expected while local stocks ending up higher on the latest unemployment numberwang print. The USD is trying to fight back as it remains weak against Euro and