House approvals remain at 18 month lows

Building Approvals; Trade; New Vehicle Sales; PSI

Approvals to build news homes rose by 8.7 per cent in December. However all the gains were centred on apartment approvals – which tend to be volatile. Apartment approvals surged by 23.4 per cent in December after sliding by 8.5 per cent in the prior month.
The all-important private sector new house segement was unchanged, holding at 18 month lows.
Australia’s trade surplus narrowed by $97 million to $1,981 million in December – in line with economist expectations. Australia has chalked up trade surpluses of $19.2 billion over just the past nine months.
The services sector is still going backwards. The Performance of Services index eased modestly from 46.4 to 45.5 in January. Any reading below 50 suggests that the services sector is contracting. The services sector has only expanded for just two months in the past year.
In January, 73,584 vehicles were sold, down by 1.7 per cent compared with a year ago. In seasonally adjusted terms CommSec estimates that sales eased 2.0 per cent in the month. Sales of “other” vehicles like utes, trucks and buses totaled just 13,013 in January – marking the lowest reading in two years.