After last month’s anomaly, the unemployment rate for March has increased to 5.6 per cent, up 0.2 per cent. While 36,100 jobs were lost, a falling participation rate helped soften the headline increase. This compares to Roy Morgan’s unemployment rate of 10.8 per cent for March, down 0.1%. Contributing to …
House price statistics released today from RP Data shows the housing market is back in force with national dwelling prices increasing 1.3 per cent in the month of March and 2.8 per cent for the quarter. According to experts, this marks the “best” result in three years. If annualised, prices …
QBE Insurance has been forced to withdraw building indemnity insurance from July after a rise in the number of builders becoming insolvent. Legislation in many states requires home builders to hold indemnity insurance to protect the property owner in the event the builder collapses, disappears or the builder passes away. …
1.5 per cent was wiped off the value of Australian stocks today, in part on the news the Chinese government is tightening regulations to help contain China’s Housing Bubble. The Shanghai Composite fell 3.6 per cent dragged down by some construction stocks falling as much as 10 per cent. Australia …
S&P has reaffirmed Australia’s AAA credit rating for now, but has warned a number of vulnerabilities exist. One vulnerability is a housing correction due to the “substantial [household] debt mainly due to elevated property prices” in Australia. The report indicated “The sustainability of high household debt levels has not been …
Influential businessman Dick Smith is one of many who calls Australia’s property market a Ponzi scheme. He told the weekend Australian Financial Review in 2011, “I suggest to people who have big borrowings on a house, it’s all a Ponzi scheme.” A Ponzi scheme provides returns to investors from money …
A private survey on unemployment from Roy Morgan estimates 10.9 per cent of the Australian workforce was unemployed in January 2013, up 1.3% over the past month and now sitting at the highest rate since January 2002. In other news, Retail trade figures released by the RBA show Christmas trading …
On Thursday, Treasurer Wayne Swan was forced to dump plans for a surplus and realign fiscal policy towards “jobs and growth” as collapsing tax revenues caused the budget to miss target estimates. Cash receipts to the end of October are now 3.9 billion behind budget estimates. With a fragile economy, …
Credit Suisse has expressed concerns about the Australian Banking Sector in its latest research report. It fears job cuts, payment shocks and declining house prices could cause downside risks to earnings and dividends as Australia’s households continue to de-leverage. According to the research, leveraged investors are struggling to make money …
Papers published today from the Property Market and Financial Stability conference held in August reveal Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens opened the conference with remarks on if central banks should lean on asset bubbles before they get too big and out of control. Using momentary policy to put downwards pressure …
Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in the world, has over the past few years become concerned about the direction of Australia according to her latest article in the Australian Resources & Investment Magazine. “It goes back to something Australian’s used to understand well: almost every home understood that you had …
Woolworth’s & Fletcher Building Chairman, Ralph Waters is not surprised either that we have hit a bad patch. Yesterday, I expressed my view the current downturn was inevitable following a stimulus package designed to temporarily prop up an unsustainable, household-debt ridden economy. Mr Water’s told the Australian Financial Review the …
Treasurer Wayne Swan describes today’s 25 basis point cut to the official cash rate as “the early Christmas present that hard working Aussies deserve.” In a press conference after the Reserve Bank announcement, Swan told Australian’s “We’ve now had the equivalent of seven rate cuts over the past year and …
Only hope remains from the phantom housing recovery after the RBA released credit growth aggregates for October. Growth for housing credit has fallen to a positive 0.3 per cent, down from 0.4 per cent the month earlier. Over the 12 month period, housing credit is growing at just 4.7 per …
Near record low interest rates and talks of a property recovery has done little to instill confidence in a struggling residential construction sector. The Age’s Chris Vedelago today reports: Melbourne’s outer-suburban property market is facing a serious slump as distressed buyers and builders cancel one in every three new home …
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has highlighted concerns about the concentration and interconnectedness of Australia’s big four banks in the most recent Financial System Stability Assessment on Australia. It reports Australia’s four major banks, The ANZ, Commonwealth, Westpac and NAB hold 80 per cent of the countries banking assets and …
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has been forced to set up a taskforce to conduct surveillance on spruikers pushing the use of self-managed super funds (SMSF) to leverage up heavily into residential properties located typically in depressed markets such as Queensland. ASIC commissioner Peter Kell is concerned SMSFs …
Last Monday, the Federal Government released its Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), hoping growth in the residential housing construction sector would take over from our deteriorating mining boom and save Australia from pending recession. Household consumption remains solid in aggregate and there are tentative signs that residential building …
After 21 years of economic expansion, Treasury is pinning its hopes on a bigger housing bubble to stave of recession after the mining boom. David Gruen, executive director of Treasury’s macroeconomic group told a Senate budget estimates committee, “In a couple of years, when mining investment does not contribute to …
As expected, the official unemployment figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today showed a sharp rise in unemployment. According to the ABS, unemployment now sits at 5.4 per cent – a two and a half year high. The key driver to the increase in the unemployment rate …
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