Australian Economy

Via The Australian: Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has lashed the “disgraceful, disgusting” behaviour of “raving inner-city lunatics” for linking climate change to the ferocious bushfires burning across Queensland and NSW.

It’s been two on trot and now third and the worst approaches, via the AFR: Real retail sales are going backwards as people who haven’t had a pay rise in years and feel they don’t need another dress, sofa or pair of shoes eschew the shops altogether.

Via Australian Construction Industry Forum (ACIF): ACIF Forecasts Market Dragged Down by Residential Construction but Not Out The Australian Construction Industry Forum (ACIF) forecasts that the decline in Residential Building will be so deep that it will dominate the outlook for building and construction, dragging down economic growth and employment.

Nobody sells it like Chris Joye: So what we are thinking right now?

Via The Australian: The shopping centre industry has been rocked by the largest deal of the year, with a half stake in the $1.34bn Westfield Marion in Adelai­de selling to Singapore-listed SPH REIT, in a transaction showing an 8 per cent discount to the mall’s December value.

The Attorney General’s Department has released its Trends in Federal Enterprise Bargaining Report for the June quarter of 2019, which reveals that private sector wage growth declined.

This year’s Melbourne Cup posted the lowest attendance since the mid-1990s, alongside weak television viewership and betting numbers: Attendance on the racetrack and TV ratings were down yesterday “for the race that stops the nation”.

Two months ago, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg boasted to the AFR Property Summit that the rebound in property prices would help to boost Australia’s GDP: Treasury estimates that a 10 per cent increase in house prices could result in a corresponding lift to GDP of about half a per cent.

There’s a lot of soul searching today over whether selling-off Australia’s essential assets and services was a good idea.

Via the AIG comes the construction PMI: A little rebound in new orders as house purchases fall a little slower: Which is pretty poor in itself given prices have turned so sharply and it is offset by ongoing steep falls in every other segment.

Via Martin North: In the final part of our October 2019 Household Survey we look at the results through the lens of our segmentation models. What is clear is there is a disconnect between future home price expectations (much more positive) and proposed activity (lower demand for credit, and intentions to transact).

Today, Australia’s great mind, Paul Kelly finally catches on: The Australian economy is not in crisis but is facing a combination of poor investment, weak consumption and stagnant wages growth.

Via FTAlphaville: The skill of the good economist, like the good writer, lies not just in what they include in their work, but what they choose to leave out.

Via Martin North: The bad news keeps coming, with the latest DFA Household Financial Confidence Index for October at the lowest ever of 83.7.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will come into effect in 2020, after the leaders of the 15 participating nations agreed to the terms of the trade deal at the East Asia Summit in Bangkok.

In February, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance admitted that “off-the-charts” demand had stretched Sydney’s train system to its limits: Sydney’s 163-year-old train network is struggling under the demands of what the government describes as “an explosion in demand”.