Australian Economy

Queensland has recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, boosting hopes that the lockdown of the state’s South East will be lifted as scheduled at 4pm on Sunday: All of the new cases were locally acquired and among household contacts linked to the cluster spreading through schools in Brisbane’s inner-west.

Callam Pickering, economist at global jobs site Indeed, has updated his job postings series to 30 July, with the impact of lockdowns beginning to have an adverse impact.

Has anybody else noticed how nobody is talking about a “commodity supercycle” anymore?

Via AIG: Next month will be much worse.

ABS weekly payrolls are…rolling sharply: Everywhere but led by NSW: It’s a blue recession!

TSLombard with the note: Households’ ‘excess’ savings haves urged globally in the midst of the pandemic, led by the US.

NSW Health has recorded another 262 locally acquired COVID cases over the past 24 hours – a record high for the state: NSW recorded 262 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

QLD has recorded another 16 new locally acquired COVID cases – the same number as the prior two days: All new cases are linked to a cluster involving schools in Brisbane’s inner west, which has grown to 79.

Data from the Property Council of Australia shows that the national office vacancy rate increased from 11.6% to 11.9% in the first six months of 2021 – the highest vacancies in a quarter of a century.

Just a day after Victoria declared a ‘donut day’ of zero locally acquired COVID infections, a new cluster has emerged and six new locally acquired cases have been recorded: Reported yesterday: 6 new local cases and no new cases acquired overseas.

New car sales continued to rise in July despite widespread lockdowns across Australia. According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), 84,161 new cars were sold in July, up only 16.1% from July last year and slightly above July 2019.

Roy Morgan has released its Inflation Expectations report for July, which increased to 4.1% – the highest reading since October 2019: In July 2021 Australians expected inflation of 4.1% annually over the next two years, up 0.1% and the highest Inflation Expectations for nearly two years since October 2019.

NSW Health has recorded another 233 locally acquired COVID cases over the past 24 hours: NSW recorded 233 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

QLD Health has reported another 16 locally acquired COVID cases – the same number as yesterday’s: Of today’s cases, four are linked to Ironside State School in the Brisbane suburb of St Lucia, including one teacher.

Via Markit: Employment OK.

Hello lockdowns, via AIG: Employment still OK.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released data showing that thousands more Australians have ditched Sydney and Melbourne and moved to Queensland.

Australia’s last census (2016) was associated with great controversy stemming from its “digital-first” strategy, whereby the majority of Australians would do the census online for the first time. Then a denial of service (DOS) attack occurred on census night, resulting in the online questionnaire platform shutting down and remaining offline for nearly two days.

NSW Health has recorded another 199 new COVID cases over the past 24 hours: NSW recorded 199 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index has rebounded 1.1% after Victoria and South Australia lifted their lockdowns: Consumer confidence gained 1.1% last week as the lockdowns in Victoria and South Australia ended.