Monthly household fuel bill hits $200

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Weekly Petrol Price; Imports According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol rose by 0.5 cents per litre to 143.2 cents a litre... Read more continue reading

La Niña weather event still dominates

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La Niña update Our last update on the La Niña weather event was published on February 14. At that time the Southern Oscillation index hit an 11-week low of +16.6... Read more continue reading

Consumers start spending again

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CBA Business Spending index In line with anecdotal evidence, consumer spending strengthened in February. The Commonwealth Bank Business Sales Indicator (BSI) rose by 0.5 per cent in trend terms in... Read more continue reading

Construction jobs plunge; Airfares on rise

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Quarterly Labour force data; Over the three months to February, employment across Australia grew by just 0.1 per cent or 16,200 – marking the slowest pace of jobs growth in... Read more continue reading

Investor Signposts: Week Beginning March 20 2011

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The big picture If you wanted to get a good textbook example of a ‘fear-driven’ event it is the so-called Japanese nuclear crisis. It started with one of the biggest... Read more continue reading

Lending slides; Futures market bets on rate cut

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Lending finance; RBA Board minutes; New Car Sales Lending slumped in January. Total lending finance fell for the first time in the five months – down by 6.0 per cent... Read more continue reading

The Great Sendai Earthquake of 2011

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Perspectives At 2.46pm on Friday March 11, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred off the north east coast of Japan near Sendai, triggering a 10 metre tsunami... Read more continue reading

Credit cards on the outer; Petrol on the rise

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Credit card lending; Weekly Petrol Price Credit card balances are growing at the slowest annual pace in 16 months. The average credit card balance in January was up just 0.8... Read more continue reading

The likely economic/financial impact of Japan’s earthquake

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Key points The Japanese earthquake has caused terrible human suffering. In terms of the economic impact, in the short term it will likely depress Japan’s economy as a result of... Read more continue reading

China: Food inflation remains high

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Chinese economic data Inflation prints above forecast. China’s annual inflation rate held steady in February at 4.9 per cent, but was above expectations centred on a result near 4.8 per... Read more continue reading