Australian Economy

It’s marvelous what arguments you can come with if you assume that: a) the economy doesn’t ever have to compete and, b) we’re Aussies so we’re different!

From the Treasurer today via the AFR: Treasurer Joe Hockey says the government’s refusal to assist SPC Ardmona was a signal to the rest of the country that “the days of entitlement are over and the age of personal responsibility has begun’’.

And down we go again following tearaway 0.7% read in December, TD monthly inflation is 0.1% for January and 2.5% year on year.

By Leith van Onselen Federal Employment Minister, Eric Abetz, was out over the weekend explaining that the Government’s refusal to provide a $25 million “structural adjustment” payment to SPC Ardmona was because of its “overly-generous” labour conditions, which the Government claims is behind the food processor’s woes.

From David Uren today: Estimating the probable path of export prices has been the most vexed forecasting problem for Treasury over the past decade.

By Leith van Onselen One of the most profound changes affecting the Australian economy and society over the past decade has been the massive lift in Australia’s net immigration, which surged from the mid-2000s and is running at roughly twice the pace of long-run norms (see next chart).

Business Spectator’s Rob Burgess has written another solid piece today on the “reckoning” about to be bestowed on the Australian economy as the once-in-a-century commodity price and mining investment booms unwind: Well, Prime Minister Tony Abbott couldn’t have wished to live in more interesting times.

By Leith van Onselen JP Morgan’s chief economist for Australia, Stephen Walters, has delivered a nice sermon on why real incomes in Australia must fall.

Fresh from the HIA: New home sales in December rounded off 2013 as a year of solid growth, said the Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry.

Get this from the opening page of iiNet’s submission to the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network: Policy vacuum The strategic review, the cost benefit analysis and the public debate are all being conducted in a public policy vacuum.

From a few days ago, but vaguely interesting, the world’s top one hundred international tourism cities via Euromonitor.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its cost of living indices for the December quarter, which revealed a moderation of cost pressures for the typical Australian worker, with retirees and those on welfare fairing less favourably (see below table).

From our favourite, Bill Evans, today: The six month annualised deviation from trend growth rate of the Westpac Melbourne Institute Leading Index of Economic Activity which indicates the likely pace of economic activity three to nine months into the future fell to 1.06% in December from 1.12% in November.

The DEEWR Job Vacancies Index has fallen 1.2% in December to marginal new low: Tradies and sales people did all right: But skilled folk got caned with exception of education and health.

ANZ has published its major projects update and, sheesh, this is going to hurt.

Alan Kohler has a nice wrap on the consequences of Australia’s people ponzi today: Last year Australia’s population grew 1.8 per cent, or 407,000, compared with 0.7 per cent for the United States, 0.5 per cent for Europe and China, and minus 0.1 per cent for Japan.

By Leith van Onselen The news today is that another big brand manufacturer appears headed to the wall in SPC Ardmona: The future of the SPC Ardmona cannery in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley appears bleak after Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the business should get its own house in order rather than seek government assistance.

From The Australian today: THE Employment Department has raised concerns about Labor’s “demand-driven” system of university funding, warning that job prospects for graduates may get worse as the historic expansion of Australia’s tertiary system pumps ever more job-seekers into a deteriorating labour market.

The RBA has released a new research paper looking at past terms of trade booms and how the economy coped with their demise.