Australian Economy

Via Martin North: The latest data released today by DFA is our mortgage stress analysis to the end of September 2019.

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has investigated 22 Subway franchisees for compliance with workplace laws.

Not going anywhere fast: Nothing burger.

The latest CoreLogic Pain & Gain Report shows that a much higher share of investors sold their properties for a loss over the June quarter than owner-occupiers: As shown above, nearly one-in-five investors across Australia’s capital cities made a loss in the June quarter, versus just over one-in-ten owner-occupiers.

Though not for long!

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has released its debt ratios for the June quarter, which revealed that Australian households’ debt loads have hit another all-time high.

There are currently 13 China-backed Confucius Institutes operating at Australian universities, including many of the prestigious Group of Eight institutions such as the universities of Sydney, Melbourne, NSW, and Queensland.

Clyde Russell asks an uncharacteristically stupid question: Is Australia the ultimate commodity hedge? When looking at the country’s natural resources the focus tends to be as its status as the world’s biggest exporter of iron ore and liquefied natural gas (LNG), and its competition with Indonesia as the top shipper of coal.

Not that they were ever going to do much anyway.

An ‘unimaginable’ water crisis is smashing many Australian regional towns, according to Reuters: The little town of Guyra in eastern Australia lies next to a freshwater lagoon just half a day’s drive from Sydney, but its drinking water is due to run dry in 400 days’ time.

Via UBS’s excellent George Theranou: Business credit is clearly slowing now (0.2% m/m, 3.4% y/y, lowest since Jun-18), amid ongoing tight credit to small business. Meanwhile, personal credit continues to contract sharply (-0.2% & -3.4% y/y), the ~worst since the GFC, and a negative signal for retail sales.

Via the AIG: Bit of an odd mix there with sales clubbed but new orders up.

Via the Melbourne Institute: month on month inflation at 0.1% in August; year on year at 1.5% Trimmed mean did a little better up 0.2 to 1.6% but there is no mistaking the lowflation here.

Via Office of the Chief Economist: Australian resource exports appear likely to hold up in 2019–20, in the face of volatile commodity markets.

After Australia’s abysmal June quarter national accounts were released earlier this month, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg swept aside the concerns and triumphantly declared: “Today’s National Accounts show that the Australian economy has completed its 28th consecutive year of economic growth – a record unmatched by any other developed economy.

When you gut your industrial base certain things flow in due course.

If it didn’t matter so much it would be amusing watching L-plate Treasurer Josh Recessionberg make no sense, via the AFR: Treasurer John Frydenberg has endorsed Future Fund chairman Peter Costello’s call that further interest rates cuts won’t boost the economy all that much and insisted the government is developing a productivity agenda.

Via Tim Colebatch at Inside Story: Strong exports have been one of the key pillars of Australia’s economic growth in the past decade.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released its quarterly labour force report, which breaks-down employment at the industry level to August 2019.