Australian Economy

Australia’s productivity growth has averaged just 0.2% a year over the last decade.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the all-important Q1 2025 CPI inflation print.

The composition of Australia’s international student enrolments has changed drastically over the past 20 years. In December 2005, 288,579 overseas students were studying in Australia. China (63,695) dominated enrolments, with India (24,644) in a distant second position.

Liberal leader Peter Dutton was questioned about his plans to cut the permanent migrant intake from 185,000 in 2024-25 to 140,000 in 2025-26.

Last month, Vicki Thomson, the CEO of the elite Group of Eight (Go8) universities, claimed that international education is the nation’s third-largest export.

I noted recently how Australia’s housing obsession has gradually choked the economy. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that Australia’s housing stock was valued at a record $11,032.2 billion in 2024, with the average home valued at $976,800.

Electric vehicles (EVs) receive large subsidies in Australia. First, the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption for battery EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) is estimated to cost the federal budget more than $550 million in lost tax revenue each year.

I have written about how the explosion in cafe numbers and rampant cost inflation have left the hospitality industry in a precarious position.

Every few weeks, the world’s media publishes an article on a fantastical breakthrough in electric vehicle (EV) battery technology that enables cars to be charged in as little as five minutes.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Q4 2024 national accounts revealed that the economy finally emerged from a per capita recession following 21 consecutive quarters of decline.

Aussie retail sales have been structurally weak, falling in per capita terms over the past two years.

The Climate Council claims that Australians are paying $30 billion more on insurance than they were a decade ago, while premiums have risen at more than twice the average rate of inflation over that time.

Via S&P comes the Aussie flash PMI. Flash Australia PMI Composite Output Index(1): 51.4 (Mar: 51.6). 2-month low. Flash Australia Services PMI Business Activity Index(2): 51.4 (Mar: 51.6). 2-month low. Flash Australia Manufacturing Output Index(3): 51.5 (Mar: 51.8). 2-month low. Flash Australia Manufacturing PMI(4): 51.7 (Mar: 52.1).

Australia’s universities must rank as the nation’s most poorly run organisations.

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The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is famously bad at forecasting Australian wage growth. For the past 15 years, the RBA’s Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP) has routinely forecast stronger wage growth than has occurred.

The Albanese government’s Australian Universities Accord Final Report set a target of 55% of young Australians having a university degree by 2050.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released its March labour force report, which was steady as she goes.

Hellbourne is Australia’s first version of Mega-City One.

Seek released its latest employment report for Australia, which suggests the job market is deteriorating.

Roy Morgan unemployment is a better measure than the doctored ABS version.

Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro published intriguing charts showing the sharp decline in consumer inflation expectations. The following chart shows that the long-running monthly Melbourne Institute measure of consumer inflation expectations has fallen to the long-run (1995–2019) average on a quarterly basis.

Bitcoin (BTC) has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 2009.

President Trump’s 10% tariff on Australia never made sense. Australia has historically had a gaping trade deficit with the United States. As illustrated in the table below from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the United States exported (A$88.2b) more than double what it imported (A$37.5b) from Australia in 2023-24.