Australian Economy

By Philip Soos and Paul D.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released new motor vehicle sales for the month of September 2014, which registered a 2.9% seasonally adjusted jump in the number of sales, and a 0.8% increase over the year (see next table).

An interesting divergence has appeared between the Westpac consumer sentiment index and the Roy Morgan consumer confidence index:   The 3 month moving average doesn’t improve things: I have no explanation and a similar spread was apparent in 2010/11.

From Bill Evans: The Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment rose by 0.9% from 94.0 in September to 94.8 in October.

By Leith van Onselen The Abbott Government yesterday announced sweeping changes to the 457 ‘temporary’ work visa program to make it much easier for Australian businesses to import so-called skilled foreign workers.

By Leith van Onselen Fairfax’s Peter Martin has posted an interesting article today on the worsening employment situation in Victoria, which threatens to scuttle the incumbent Liberal Government: No state other than Tasmania performed as badly.

There are many business surveys out there and most have questions, in some shape  or form, that are applicable to the labour market.

The September NAB business survey is out and the flush of post-election exuberance is fading as expected.

By Leith van Onselen Roy Morgan Research (RMR) has released its business confidence survey for September, which registered a 6.8 point (5.9%) rise over the month to be 9.8% below the peak recorded in October 2013 following the federal election, but above the average of the last four years (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen The ANZ-Roy Morgan Research (RMR) consumer confidence index rose in the week ended 12 October, up 1.2 points (1.1%) to 113.8, taking it just above its long-run average reading of 113.2 (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen Last week while I was on leave, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released visitor arrivals and departures data for the month of August, which registered another significant fall in net long-term and permanent migration into Australia.

  Cross-posted from The Conversation Over the last half century, manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment has been in long-term decline.

From Michael West: At the very time the states are sprucing up their energy companies for sale, further revelations of regulatory rorting will be flowing thick and fast.

In my recent series on the macroeconomic blunders of Australian leadership, the prominent role of shaky assumptions about Chinese growth are paramount.

By Leith van Onselen While everyone was debating the veracity of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) seasonally adjusted labour force data, the important issue of Australia’s deepening youth unemployment crisis has been largely ignored.

by Chris Becker The RBA’s Assistant Governor Malcolm Edey had some interesting comments the FINSIA Conference in Sydney this morning.

From Westpac’s Bill Evans: As expected the Reserve Bank Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 2.5% at its October meeting.

Earlier this week I wrote that the number one Australian economic blunder of recent times has been the failure to understand the real position of the economy post-GFC, largely by confusing structure and cycle.

From The West Australian: The State Government will seek 1500 voluntary redundancies as it looks to deal with mounting debt and the day-to-day costs of running Government.

In lieu of Leith this week (he returns next), find below a cross-post of Westpac’s detailed take on today’s Labour Force survey.