Australian Economy

The Centre for Future Work has released a report which shows that the proportion of private-sector workers who are covered by enterprise agreements has fallen to just 11% since 2013.

MSM economist , Jason Murphy, yesterday penned an hand-wringing article lamenting Australia’s poor wage growth: So, why are wages so low?

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work has released a new report examining university-to-job pathways, which notes that job prospects for university graduates has unambiguously worsened since the Global Financial Crisis.

This time CBA: CPI Preview – Q3 2019 ■ We expect the headline CPI to rise by 0.5% in Q3 (1.7%/yr). ■ The Trimmed Mean CPI on our forecasts will print at 0.4% (1.6%/yr).

Like Groundhog Day, CommSec has released its latest State of the States report, which again ranks Victoria on top due largely to a combination of strong population growth, construction, and debt-fuelled consumption: How are Australia’s states and territories performing?

Via Ross Gittins: …secretary to the Treasury, Dr Steven Kennedy…explained to Senate Estimates the long-established orthodoxy among macro-economists in the advanced economies that “short-term economic weakness or unsustainably strong growth is best responded to by monetary policy” (interest rates) not fiscal policy (government spending and taxation).

Via the excellent George Theranou at UBS: Sales in Australia using a BuyNowPayLater (BNPL) payment method have boomed from ~$2bn in 2017, to ~$7bn in 2019, & will likely surge further to ~$12bn in 2021 – before growth likely normalises to a still strong ~double-digit pace thereafter.

Pessimism over the Australian economy has spread to company directors, the overwhelming majority of whom believe the Australian economy will deteriorate next year: Some 59 per cent of directors expect “weak” economic conditions in Australia over the next 12 months.

ANZ chief Shayne Elliott has said that while the Australian economy has avoided a technical recession, it sure does feel like one to many of its customers: “Does it feel like a recession?

Via News: Rockpool Dining Group, a giant in the hospitality and dining scene, has been accused of “one of the most egregious cases of wage theft Australia has seen yet” by a law firm alleging the company has underpaid its workers at least $10 million.

From the Scummo files, at The Australian: It pays to be in power.

Via the AFR: Record-low vacancy rates across the eastern seaboard have pushed office development activity to its highest level on record, with the number of cranes building new workplace accommodation jumping to 83 in the latest RLB Crane Index.

It bounced with great fanfare then the air came out of the balloon: The latest Commonwealth Bank Flash Composite PMI® pointed to subdued business conditions in Australia at the start of the final quarter of the year.

And secedes from Australian foreign policy in the process.

The 2000s Millennial Drought was said to be the worst drought in Australia’s recorded history.

Via Michael West: A former school teacher from Copacabana Beach has just locked horns with the four most powerful private institutions on the planet.

It’s amazing watching the idiotic non-solutions emerge for Australia’s hyper immigration-fuelled population growth.

Via the ABC: There is now a real risk the government’s coveted budget surplus is at risk of turning into a sizeable deficit, according to several economists.

Here ’tis: Population growth of 1.6% plus inflation of 1.6% equals zero same store growth with “a higher level of promotional activity” read discounts.

Who would have thought: the drought is driving people from the regions to the cities, the opposite of the federal government’s ‘migrants to the bush’ policy.