Frugal shoppers stay home with a good book

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Retail trade; Job advertisements; Performance of Construction Weak consumer spending. Retail spending grew by just 0.2 per cent in December, below expectations centred on a rise of 0.5 per cent.

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning February 6 2011

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The big picture China is now the second largest economy in the world. Australia ranks as 13th biggest. But Australia is regarded as an advanced economy whereas China is defined

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Risk that La Niña could persist over 2011

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La Niña update The current La Niña weather event is responsible for the flooding across eastern and southern Australia as well as the severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi. The current La

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Reserve Bank signals rates on hold

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RBA Statement on Monetary Policy The recent floods and softer-than-expected economic data have caused the Reserve Bank to tinker with short-term forecasts, but the longer-term forecasts are unchanged. Given the

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House approvals remain at 18 month lows

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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

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Food prices fall; Housing remains depressed

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New Home Sales; Average Retail Prices A raft of supermarket items fell in price over the past three months. On average almost half of regularly surveyed grocery items were cheaper

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Floods take toll on corporate Australia

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NAB Business Survey; PMI The NAB business confidence index fell from +6.2 to -2.7 in December – the weakest reading in 20 months. The business conditions index rose from +3.7

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Floods will have no impact on interest rates

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Reserve Bank Board meeting The Reserve Bank Board has left the cash rate at 4.75 per cent at its first meeting for 2011. The next meeting is on March 1

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Home prices at 18-month lows

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Home prices Capital city home prices rose by 0.2 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms in December after falling by 0.1 per cent in November according to the RP Data-Rismark

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Flood levy proposed – but is it necessary?

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Economic issues The Prime Minister has proposed a levy on higher-income Australians to assist in meeting the damage bill from the east coast floods. The levy will apply in 2011/12

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