Australian Economy

Westpac’s Red Book for May is out.

From the MacroBusiness Vault In an ideal world a selection of price indexes would be easily constructed and highly reflective of economic reality.

The AFR is reporting that: A Whitsunday tourism operator has claimed an unlikely victory in his fight to prevent Deutsche Bank financing the $1.8 billion Abbot Point coal terminal in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

I’ve discovered a new index.

From Forbes a few weeks ago but apposite today: 1) Australian banks.

Cross-posted from David Collyer at Prosper Australia The Property Council of Australia is ‘vehemently opposed’ to Canberra’s special land levy to part-fund the $600 million light rail project from Gungahlin to the city, calling it “just another property tax in disguise”.

Westpac last night released its consumer unemployment expectations report for May, which points to a moderate improvement in labour market conditions; although the unemployment rate is still expected to trend upwards as employment lags population growth: The unemployment expectations index fell 0.5% in May following on from a 3.2% decline in Apr.

As promised, here is the Kouk’s rebirth and good on him.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has just released its Wage Price Index for the March quarter of 2014, which revealed a continuation of soft wages growth across the economy, with annual wages growth also tracking at the lowest rate in the series’ 16-year history (see below charts).

By Leith van Onselen The Westpac-Melbourne Institute has released its consumer sentiment index for May, which confirms that the mood of the Australian consumer has turned sour on the back of the Budget, with the index plummeting 6.8% in May to 92.9 – the lowest reading since August 2011.

A nice little indicator of the imploding global mining capex boom last night from Caterpillar whose global sales fell 13% year on year  in the March quarter, continuing the not so recent pattern.

Find below a few excerpts from Ross Garnaut’s 2014 John Freebairn Lecture in Public Policy:  Resolving Energy Policy Dilemmas in an Age of Carbon Constraints, delivered last night.

Here’s a great little post from Deutsche Bank chief economist Adam Boyton via the SMH blog.

It’s turning into an historic plunge for the put-upon consumer.

The Australian economy is ploughing into rising swells.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has just released new motor vehicle sales for the month of April 2014, which registered no change seasonally adjusted change in the number of sales, but a 1.9% decrease over the year (see next table).

A comment from one Chad Padowitz of Wingate Asset Management has caught my eye.