Australian Economy

Last week was a seminal one for the Australian economy and investment outlook.

Via AIG: Wages and employment nasty.

Via Gareth Aird at CBA. Virus-afflicted economies do not prosper: The 2020/21 financial year kicked off in spectacular fashion for the Australian retail sector. Retail trade (final) rose by a massive 3.2% in July (versus the preliminary estimate of 3.3%).

At The Australian: A cabinet-level taskforce will offer financial incentives including possible tax lures for foreign-based advanced manufacturers and high-value businesses of more than $250m to relocate to Australia as part of the budget’s economic recovery blueprint.

The Grattan Institute has demolished the popular idea to make childcare tax deductible: A tax deduction will inevitably give more to high earners than to low and middle earners – the very opposite of the means-tested subsidy.

From the fake left Guardian today: Naomi is planning to fight a wage theft case against her former employer – thanks in part to a group of Chinese international students and travellers on working holiday visas who have begun to expose allegations of predatory behaviour by employers.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released trade data for the month of July, which registered a sharp fall in Australia’s trade surplus to $4,607 amid falling exports and rising imports: Key points as follows: The balance on goods and services surplus fell $3,542m to $4,607m in July 2020.

The inquiry into Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine program has been told that the state government had informed security firms in April that they were to allow returned travellers to go outside for fresh air.

Via AIG: All ton be expected except this: That’s the one that Josh Depressionberg can directly control and its collapse is all his fault.

He’s done OK, led by Labor on the stimulus that mattered, so why lie about it?

Via Deloitte: The release of national accounts data this morning confirms the Australian economy has just experienced its sharpest ever three-month contraction – driving it to its weakest growth since the end of World War 2.

Via Martin North: The August 2020 data from our surveys continues to tell a sorry tale of more households feeling the pinch, whether they are mortgaged, renting or investing.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released the national accounts for the June quarter, which registered a 7.0% decline in real GDP over the quarter and a 6.3% decline over the year.

Just in from the ABS: GDP summary The Australian economy fell 7.0% in seasonally adjusted chain volume measures GDP fell 7.6% in seasonally adjusted current price measures The terms of trade rose 0.2% Household saving ratio increased to 19.8% from 6.0%.

Labor opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, used used Sunday’s ABC Insiders program to attack the Morrison Government’s lowering of the JobSeeker supplement from $500 to $250 from next month, which will cut fortnightly JobSeeker payments to $810: ALBANESE: The economy is really struggling.