Australian Economy Australian interest rates

How Albo turned immigration into an inflation bomb

Wednesday 4 February 2026

Over the last cycle of immigration-led growth, inflation was endemically weak.

This was thanks to two main factors.

The 2013-2020 surge was driven by Chinese immigrants who brought substantial investment capital to new apartment blocks.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.