Australian Economy

Michael Mrdak, the head of the Department of Infrastructure & Regional Development, delivered a speech at a forum organised by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA) whereby he lamented that public appetite for economic reform is at the lowest point he has seen for at least three decades.

We’ve lived the housing and mining booms.

Via Westpac: The Australian National Accounts, to be released on Wednesday September 6, will provide an estimate of economic activity for the June quarter.

Good news: ▪ The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (Australian PMI® ) jumped 3.8 points higher in August to 59.8 points (seasonally adjusted).

As noted yesterday, back in 2009 Gerry Harvey had an idea.

From Adam Creighton today: Taxpayers will have paid more than $60 billion through federal renewable energy subsidies by 2030, about twice what the crumbling car industry received over 15 years and enough to build about 10 large nuclear reactors.

Via Domainfax: Angry sections of the Western Australian Liberal party are pushing to launch a fresh attempt for the state to secede, in what members are calling “WAxit” – a nod towards Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

Back in 2009 Gerry Harvey had an idea.

Via Westpac: Implications for Q2 GDP growth forecast We have rounded up our forecast for Q2 GDP growth to 0.7%qtr, 1.6%yr, edged up from 0.6% qtr.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released data on capital expenditures (capex) for the June quarter, which registered a 0.8% seasonally adjusted rise in capex volumes over the quarter but a 3.0% decrease over the year (see below table).

From the ABS comes Private Capex and it follows the recent trend of better data: Estimate 3 for total capital expenditure for 2017-18 is $101,783m. This is 3.6% lower than Estimate 3 for 2016-17. The main contributor to the decrease is Mining (-22.2%).

Via Macquarie:  Data released since the start of the year shows the outlook has improved markedly since the end of 2016.

by Chris Becker Captive supply is a wonderful thing.

Via Westpac on today’s construction boom: Construction work spiked in Q2, up a staggering $4.4bn, +9.3%. This was well in excess of expectations (mkt median and Westpac +1.0%).

Hello, from the HIA: The HIA New Home Sales report – a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in the five largest states – show that sales volumes declined by 3.7 per cent in July 2017 compared to the June 2017.

In short, no. Via Citi:  Natural disasters often have substantive local impact but less of a national effect. Hurricane Katrina left a devastating wake with an estimated $160 billion cost and a blow to the Bush administration for its seemingly sloppy response while Hurricane Sandy was awful as well (estimated at $75 billion).

Via Blackmores today: Nice little warning there for China’s southern-most state economy.

Via Morgan Stanley: 2Q GDP tracker stands at +0.2% qoq, which would see annual GDP growth slow to the low-1s, and confirms our thesis that Australia is out-of-sync with the global recovery.

The new look US Department of Energy released a big report last week on the power industry.

Via UBS today: Australia is enjoying a renewed nominal export boom driven by China. In 16/17, export values rebounded by ~19% y/y. This is the fastest growth since the terms of trade peaked at a record high in 2011 (Figure 2).

Do-nothing Malcolm is on the move to higher airs: The nation’s electricity industry chiefs will be hauled in by Malcolm Turnbull for the second time in three weeks following an audit that revealed more than a million households are still paying the highest price rates ­imposed by energy retailers.