Australian Economy

Via the Melbourne Institute comes another new year shocker with headline inflation at -0.1% month on month and year on year slumping to 1.5% from 1.9%: Trimmed mean tumbled from 1.8% to 1.4%.

BLD is today’s housing economy domino: Always blame the weather.

By Leith van Onselen If you want a textbook example of why Australia’s ‘skilled’ visa program is a giant fraud, look no further than the special pleading coming from Telstra CEO, Andy Penn, who has demanded the government leave the gates wide open for companies to employ foreign workers.

Via The Australian: China has restricted imports of Australian coking coal at up to a dozen ports in the northeast in a move that may hamper the ­nation’s biggest export market amid high prices for the raw commodity.

It is not raining on the Aussie economy right now, it is pouring.

Via CoreLogic comes the full January house price report: The first month of the New Year has seen a continuation in the broad-based housing market weakness with every capital city apart from Canberra recording a month-on-month fall in dwelling values.

Missed this yesterday.

Via AIG: To be expected given the recent swoon.

Via Westpac’s superb Red Book: ― Our CSI± composite combines subindexes tracking views on ‘family fi nances’ and ‘time to buy a major item’ with the Westpac Consumer Risk Aversion Index and provides a good guide to spending with a lead of about 6mths.

Via WBC CEO, Brian Hartzer at the AFR: “Let’s be clear: we want to lend.

The terrible Brazilian mining tragedy that has iron ore prices running wild is something of a Black Swan event for Australia.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the December quarter 0f 2018, which registered both soft headline and underlying inflation.

The ABS is out with Dec QTR CPI and it’s still weak: The headline was slightly above consensus so markets got excited but analytical series are all about as scary as facing Phil Lowe in a fist fight.

The AUD is still stuck in the mid 71s this morning: Bonds are well bid still and trending towards rate cuts: XJO is up solidly: Led by an outrageous mining party as Vale counts its dead.

Via the ABC: Economic experts have warned the Government faces a challenge in meeting its new jobs target if it restricts migration, and even if it does deliver on its pledge, Australians may not be the ones to benefit.

Via Westpac: The NAB business survey for December is a headline grabber. Business conditions have collapsed, with the largest monthly fall since the GFC. Declines were broad-based across states and industries. The business conditions index fell by 9pts to be at +2, a below average reading (for the monthly survey, dating from March 1997).

Via Damien Boey at Credit Suisse: The NAB survey revealed a sharp decline in business conditions in December to a moderate +2 from +11.

The knee breakers are prospering.

From Deloitte today: 29 January 2019: Global growth is still sprinting, but it is increasingly showing signs of starting to run out of puff.

Hoocoodanode?