If you’re invested in shares, remember how gloomy you were in October? The market was looking terrible as share values tanked. Investors panicked and hit the “sell” button. And that was a mistake. The Australian sharemarket rose 4 per cent in November, over 5 per cent in December and now sits at close to record… Read more »
Not a lot of new economic data out this week, except for the Reserve Bank Board minutes from their December meeting which decided to keep interest rates on hold. What was interesting in the minutes was a growing awareness of a change in the jobs market and the prospect of it rapidly deteriorating. The RBA… Read more »
The cost of buying a home in our capital cities is now 14 times our annual income, up from five times the annual income in 1990. Who’s doing it tougher, young homeowners today or their Baby Boomer parents who were paying 17 per cent mortgage interest? It’s the intergenerational war of words that has been… Read more »
The US central bank has made a major pivot away from talking tough about further interest rises and is now openly hinting at interest cuts in 2024. On Thursday morning our time the Federal Reserve Bank kept US interest rates on hold as expected, but then said they were expecting to cut rates 0.75 per… Read more »
This week gave us some critical economic signposts. The RBA decided to keep interest rates on hold and the latest economic growth figures were pretty anaemic – without the impact of migration the economy would be in recession. As expected, at their meeting on Tuesday, the RBA Board decided to keep interest rates on hold… Read more »
Australian energy price increases over August and September were amongst the highest in the world and a lot higher than our trading partners and other major energy producers. I questioned why this was happening. As the Economic Director for Compare The Market, I challenged the energy team to find the answer. It turns out the… Read more »
I’ve said over the last couple of weeks that I reckon the December quarter CPI figure (released on 29 January) will be lower than most people think and that we are at the top of the interest rate cycle. Just as the September CPI surprised everyone by being higher than expected, the December quarter will… Read more »
For years I’ve been following Louis Christopher from SQM Research, who I reckon is one of our very best property analysts. Long-time readers will know I often quote him here and share his research. But this time every year he issues what I think is the best property forecast for the year. It’s called Christopher’s… Read more »
Rent increases are one of the biggest factors fuelling our inflation rate, keeping it high and forcing the RBA to keep interest rates high. According to SQM Research’s Christopher’s Housing Boom and Bust Report, that pressure on inflation from rising rents is not going away next year. SQM’s overall capital city forecast is for rents… Read more »
The Reserve Bank has been constantly saying that as it monitors the economy for any further need for interest rate increases, apart from inflation its focus is on jobs, household spending and the property market. This week we received key data on all these areas. First up jobs. Unemployment up but job creation still strong… Read more »
