Australian Economy

Via Reneweconomy: Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull knows a thing or two about energy policy and climate change.

From Gotti today: …we’re really left with only one alternative — the Bowen Basin in Queensland although there is gas in the Northern Territory but that too is being blocked by the Northern Territory administration.

By Leith van Onselen Another Fairfax journalist, Jacob Saulwick, has rushed to the defence of Australia’s population ponzi, choosing to completely misrepresent the Productivity Commission’s (PC) research on the issue to paint the picture that mass immigration is good for the economy and living standards.

Australia now has an economy designed point blank to kill governments.

Movement and quite rightly.

By Leith van Onselen Roger Wilkins, a professor at the Melbourne Institute, is the latest to swallow the Kool Aid that Australia’s cities are the prime generators of Australia’s wealth.

From Reneweconomy: The so-called “clean coal” power generator being promoted by the Coalition has been revealed to be a 2009 proposal from businessman Clive Palmer that would be used to help provide electricity to Galilee coal mines planned by Palmer himself, Gina Rinehart, and Indian group Adani.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released the national accounts for the December quarter, which registered a 1.1% rebound in real GDP over the quarter and a 2.4% rise over the year, beating economists’ expectations of a 0.7% rise.

The blame is coming thick and fast now for business who is to blame for not investing, apparently, via the AFR: Speaking just hours ahead of the release of gross domestic product figures for the fourth quarter, Mr [John] Fraser said his department continues to see the economy as fundamentally strong “but finely balanced”.

Via Credit Suisse: APRA has released bank commercial real estate (CRE) data for the December 2016 quarter, highlighting a wide-spread peaking in the pace of CRE lending balance growth across the banking industry.

Terrific news here from the AIG:  The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (Australian PMI® ) increased by 8.1 points in February to a strong 59.3 points (results above 50 indicate expansion with the distance from 50 points indicating the strength of expansion).

An interesting argument today from Macquarie: Event  We think that Queensland could be on the cusp of a major lift in interstate migration from New South Wales and Victoria over the next few years.

By Leith van Onselen Last week, the ABS released average weekly earnings data, which revealed that real earnings were flat (0% change) in the year to November 2016 and have fallen by 2.1% since May 2013 (see below charts).

By Leith van Onselen Yesterday, the Victorian Government announced that it is rezoning 100,000 housing blocks and creating 17 new suburbs in Melbourne’s key growth zones in order to cater for Melbourne’s bulging population.

By Rod van Onselen I was recently asked by an ex-colleague whether the digital innovation practices my teams have used could be applied in other industries.

By Gareth Aird, senior economist at CBA: Key Points: We expect QIV GDP growth to print at 0.7%.

From Westpac: Q4 public demand, +1.4% Public demand surprised to the high side on a jump in investment, +7.8%. Overall public demand increased by 1.4% in the quarter, well in excess of our expectations (f/c 0.4%), and will add 0.3ppts to growth in the quarter.

From the HIA: HIA’s New Home Sales Report – a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in Australia – reveals a decline in the volume of sales at the start of the New Year.