Australian housing affordability is at an all-time low. At the end of 2024, the percentage of income necessary to satisfy median-sized mortgage repayments reached a record high of 50.6%. Rental affordability also dropped to a new low, making it tougher for first-time buyers to save a deposit. Prior to last month’s 0.25% interest rate reduction
It’s a triumph! Australia’s energy shortages have been resolved. Except when you look at how. From the AEMO. Shortfall risks under peak conditions are forecast in southern Australia from 2028, later than forecast in the 2024 GSOO due to expected falls in residential, commercial and industrial consumption of gas, and the delayed retirement of Eraring
DXY and EUR stable. AUD downish. Lead boots are made for walking. Gold has entered some kind of new up smash. Copper doom is here thanks to Goldman. Meh everything else. Big miners meh. EM maybe. Credit surged. Oh dear. Yields down. Stocks up. Is it a sort of Fed put? UBS. Dare anyone say
Last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the Q4 2024 wage price index, which increased 0.7% for the quarter and 3.2% year on year. The 0.7% quarterly increase was the equal-lowest growth rate since Q1 2022, while the 3.2% annual increase was the lowest since Q3 2022. Real wages deflated by headline CPI
Uncertainty has returned for stock markets here in Asia in response to the stumbles on Wall Street overnight with local stocks ending up lower. The USD is trying to fight back as it remains weak against Euro and Pound Sterling although the BOJ hold today helped it keep Yen lower this afternoon, as traders await
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s 1.75% reduction in the official cash rate has finally stimulated an upswing in New Zealand house prices. The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s (REINZ) House Price Index jumped by 1.4% in February to be 0.5% higher over the quarter. Over the year, New Zealand home prices were down
Long-term readers of MB will recall Martin “Parko” Parkinson, the roaring hypocrite who spent much of his time whining about poor productivity in various senior roles while making it much worse himself. Today he returns to lord it over us all with lies. Former top public servant Martin Parkinson has warned Labor and the Coalition
Treasurer Jim Chalmers addressed the Queensland Media Club on Tuesday, where he was asked about Labor’s promise before the last election to cut household electricity bills by $275 by 2025. Chalmers admitted that it would not be met. “The number that you’re referring to, which we all used on a number of occasions, was a
Via Roy Morgan. In February 2025, Australian ‘real’ unemployment increased 214,000 to 1,834,000 (up 1.4% to 11.5% of the workforce) with significantly more people looking for work. The driver of this increase in unemployment were the large falls in full-time employment, down 273,000 to 9,356,000, and a drop in part-time employment, down 99,000 to 4,767,000,
It is all so predictable. One of Australia’s biggest coal power stations in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley is set to stay open for four more years amid fears of devastating electricity shortages, in an extraordinary U-turn for the state Labor government’s renewable energy-only blueprint. A decision to keep coal in the power system for longer underscores Australia’s