For the past 12 years Comsec has produced “The Big Issues” report – a report that has sought to highlight the issues that are expected to influence the economy over the forthcoming 12 months.
Now this is no crystal ball gazing exercise. The aim is not just to forecast where certain economic variables are likely to be in a year’s time. Rather the focus has been to highlight trends, issues and ‘big picture’ influences that act as threats or opportunities for consumers, investors and businesses alike.
The aim has been to produce a highly readable, relatively jargon-free document. Probably today we could call this a blog. But the intention over time has been to produce commentary that causes people to think and ask the ‘so what’ question – that is, to determine what this means for their own circumstances.
And as ComSec undertake this analysis by providing a healthy amount of graphs and pictures in addition to the text to best highlight the issues they think will prove important in 2016. Certainly one of the great innovations over recent years has been the infographic and other developments that have sought to bring subject matter ‘alive’. They say that a picture should tell a thousand words, and that should be the basis for all economic and financial commentaries – make the subject matter more alive and relevant to readers. The real value of economics is when people say ‘so what?’ and relate the commentary and forecasts to their own situation.
Click here to read ComSec’s full report.
