Australian Economy

Mirabile dictu, peace has broken out between The Kouk and MB: Let me return the complement before we all blink and say The Kouk’s dovish positioning on the RBA is ahead of most in the market, including Phil Lowe.

It was headline news yesterday at the AFR: Australia Inc.

By Leith van Onselen Monday’s June quarter Business Indicators release from the ABS, which feeds into the national accounts, confirmed that wages & salaries remain wildly divergent from business profits.

Go Dick: Dick Smith is launching an advertising campaign against ABC TV news and current affairs, which he says has warped the debate he has tried to spur over Australian population growth.

Via Westpac: Public demand is expanding at an above trend pace as governments commit to new investment projects.

Caixin service PMI: The Caixin China Composite PMI™ data (which covers both manufacturing and services) indicated that Chinese business activity growth picked up for the second month in a row during August.

Via Citi:  SEK: 2/3 of growth from 1/3 of economy — Seek Australia job ads were +13% in Aug with most of the growth coming from just 7 of Seek’s 30 job categories.

From the ABS: JUNE KEY POINTS BALANCE OF PAYMENTS The current account deficit, seasonally adjusted, rose $4,808m to $9,562m in the June quarter 2017.

Essential today: No change.

By Leith van Onselen I have noted previously that one of the key reasons why Australia’s high population growth (immigration) is lowering the living standards of existing residents is because of the strain that it places on infrastructure, which inevitably leads to more congestion on roads, public transport, as well as more expensive housing.

From AIG: • The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Services Index (Australian PSI®) fell 3.4 points to 53.0 in August (seasonally adjusted).

Via The Australian: The government has been warned of a looming gap in the national electricity supply as coal-fired power stations shut down, highlighting the need for urgent decisions to build new generators that operate around the clock.

By Leith van Onselen The June quarter Business Indicators report, released yesterday, includes aggregate wages & salaries data, which according to the ABS measures “gross earnings before taxation and other deductions” and “includes provisions for employee entitlements”.

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.