This week, the Albanese government announced that the permanent migrant intake would remain at 185,000 places in 2025-26, with 132,200 places set aside for ‘skilled migrants’. When the 20,000 humanitarian intake and 3,000 Pacific Engagement Visas are added, Australia’s permanent migrant intake has effectively been set at 208,000. It is important to point out that,
The following chart from Justin Fabo at Antipodean Macro shows that Australia’s productivity growth has lagged other advanced nations since 2018. Wednesday’s Q2 national accounts release confirmed that the nation’s productivity remains stillborn, with non-farm labour productivity rising 0.3% in Q2 but was slightly lower over the year and remained around 2017 levels. While
Overnight saw the USD fall back as the latest jobs opening and Fed Beige Book painted a further slowing picture of the US economy as the Trump regime’s sales taxes, grift and general lack of ability in operating a modern government continue to take a hold. Wall Street liked it nonetheless as did bond markets
DXY is down. AUD is up, though the trend is a mess. CNY down. Gold to the moon! Metals mixed. Big bear is still in there. EM yawn. Junk still trending better. Whoa! US short-end yields are breaking down, long sticky. Feeding stocks. So much for bond vigilantes. We’ve been JOLTED instead. The number of
The 2025 federal election campaign saw both sides of politics cynically propose policies to pump homebuyer demand and prices. Both sides also explicitly stated that they want to see Australian house prices rise at a ‘sustainable rate’ from already record-high levels. Neither side genuinely wants to “solve” the housing affordability crisis because that would require
Asian share markets are seeing a broad selloff as the riskoff mood in the wake of bond sales continues to dominate the marketplace as we await Friday’s NFP print from the US. The USD is lifting slightly after being against a wall of selling against the majors but all eyes on are US Treasuries as
New Zealand’s economy and housing market remain in a funk. As illustrated below by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Kiwi-GDP nowcasting model suggests that the nation’s GDP may have declined in Q2 2025 by 0.3%. New Zealand’s labour market is also suffering its weakest conditions in a decade outside
As they say, a gas particle gathers no moss. Do they say that? No. But you catch my drift. Global markets for energy are dynamic, and today brings a new development of scale, via AlJazeera. Russia and China have agreed to move forward with a new gas pipeline during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to
The Aussie economy has passed the zenith of its historic government spending splurge as public investment peaks, according to Westpac. Today’s data showed that public investment was the primary drag. As the pipeline of public investment projects turns lower, this is feeding through into weaker activity. This quarter new public investment declined 3.4%qtr to be
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the national accounts for Q2 2025, which revealed stronger than expected growth. Analysts had tipped a 0.4% rise in headline GDP, and the RBA had forecast 0.5% growth. However, a 0.6% rise was recorded, led by household and government spending. Headline GDP grew by 1.8% over the 2024-25