Capacity use at 9yr highs. Debit accounts in vogue

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Credit/debit cards; Tourism; Business survey; Petrol; Consumer Confidence Business survey: The NAB business conditions index eased from +12.7 points to +12.0 points in May. The business confidence index eased from

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Record exports to China. Flood crimps coal exports

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International trade; China trade Trade surplus: The trade surplus fell from $3,169 million to $555 million in April. The Queensland floods were largely responsible in slashing coal receipts by $2,521

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Slowest pace of borrowing in three years

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Private sector credit; China Purchasing Managers Indexes Lending: Private sector credit rose by 0.4 per cent in April after a 0.4 per cent gain in March. Annual credit growth of

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Jobless rate nears 4-year lows

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Labour force Employment rose by 37,400 in April after rising by 60,000 in March (previously reported as a rise of 60,900 jobs). Full-time jobs fell by 11,600 while part-time jobs

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Savvy consumers; Healthy inbound tourism

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Credit & debit card data; Tourism The average credit card balance recorded fell by $25 to $3,124 in March. In smoothed terms (12 month average) the average balance was down

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Comfortable Chinese inflation

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China inflation Chinese inflation: Consumer prices rose by 1.2 per cent in the year to April (forecast +1.1 per cent). Non-food inflation rose from 2.3 per cent to 2.4 per

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Petrol prices differ markedly across the country

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Petrol prices Petrol: According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol rose by 3.8 cents to 130.6 cents a litre in the past

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CommSec State of the States April 2017

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Overall Results How are Australia’s states and territories performing? Each quarter CommSec attempts to find out by analysing eight key indicators: economic growth; retail spending; business investment; unemployment; construction work

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Economy-wide spending picks up pace

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Commonwealth Bank Business Sales Index The Commonwealth Bank Business Sales Indicator (BSI) – a measure of economy-wide spending – rose by 0.6 per cent in trend terms in March –

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Luxury vehicle slowdown poses risks for homes

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Consumer confidence; New vehicle sales; CommSec Luxury Vehicle index New vehicle sales: The Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that new vehicle sales rose by 1.9 per cent in March –

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