Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released data on deaths, which hit a record high 160,909 in 2017, although the standardised death rate hit a record low 5.3 per 1,000: There were 160,909 deaths registered in Australia in 2017, 2,405 more than the number registered in 2016 (158,504).

By Leith van Onselen The ABS has released engineering construction data for the June quarter of 2018, which revealed a 2.2% seasonally adjusted rise in the value of work done over the quarter but a 5.2% decrease over the year; although the construction pipeline increased.

By Leith van Onselen Earlier this week, a Herald poll revealed that 63% of voters supported restricting migrant numbers while 50% opposed more development in Sydney to accommodate population growth.

Via the Herald Sun: UNLEADED petrol prices in Melbourne surged as high as 167.9c a litre on Monday, in the biggest hip-pocket hit at the bowser in a decade.

By Leith van Onselen The ABC’s business reporter, Stephen Letts, yesterday posed the question: will Australia’s shaky retail sector pose a problem for Australia’s banks?

By Leith van Onselen With NSW declared 100% in drought: And Sydney’s water storages plunging: The handwringing continues by the so-called ‘experts’: “We’re sleepwalking,” says Ian Wright, a senior lecturer at Western Sydney University who was part of the 2016 triennial audit of the Sydney Water Drinking Catchment.

Via the AFR: Small business says it is facing a credit crunch and is blaming the royal commission into financial services for causing nervous banks to slow lending to the self-employed.

By Leith van Onselen Fairfax has published an article warning that cracking down on migrant worker exploitation could result in consumers paying more at cafes and restaurants: A 2015 report by watchdog the Fair Work Ombudsman found about half of all restaurants and cafes audited did not pay legal rates.

By Leith van Onselen Late last month, the Productivity Commission released a research report examining inequality in Australia, which found that income inequality has not materially worsened in recent decades, but wealth inequality has.

Via Bill Evans this afternoon: I was very surprised to see that real gross domestic product expanded a solid 3.4 per cent in the year to June 30, well above market expectations for annual growth of around 2.8 per cent.

Down we go and where we stop nobody knows: Australia has dropped six places in 12 months on the global Social Progress Index (SPI) a measurement of people’s quality of life and the wellbeing of society, independent of wealth.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released its quarterly labour force report, which breaks-down employment at the industry level to August 2018.

By Leith van Onselen Australia’s extreme household debt, which is the second highest in the world behind Switzerland: Has State Street warning that Australia is one of the most exposed economies in the world to a global debt crisis.

By Leith van Onselen The ABS has released its Australian Demographic Statistics for the March quarter of 2018, which revealed that Australia’s population continues to grow rapidly led by turbo charged net overseas migration (NOM), mostly into Sydney and Melbourne.

By Leith van Onselen The chair of a parliamentary inquiry into the development of Australia’s cities, Liberal MP John Alexander, has called for immigration to be slowed until infrastructure has caught up: …He said benchmarking immigration against infrastructure planning and progress was key to ensuring population growth was underpinned by the necessary infrastructure.

The AFR wakes up the sleeping monster of Australian economic destruction today: Stronger oil prices and the softer Australian dollar have combined to propel theoretical returns from Queensland LNG exports to record levels, with commodity prices in local currency now above the average when the projects were given the go-ahead for construction.

By Leith van Onselen Back in July, outgoing Infrastructure Australia (IA) CEO, Philip Davies, warn that Australia’s infrastructure provision is failing badly in the face of strong immigration-fuelled population growth: Mr ­Davies said if planning for major projects did not change at all levels of government, the major capitals would not cope with the population growth.