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Consumer confidence lifts the most in 5 weeks Services sector gauges; Consumer sentiment Services sector: The Australian Industry Group (AiG) Performance of Services Index (PSI) rose from 51.5 points to an 11-month high of 54.2 points in October. But the ‘final’ CBA/Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell from 52.4 points in September to 50.1 points […]

Retail trade; Weekly petrol prices Job Ads; Inflation gauge Retail trade lifts: Retail trade rose by 0.2 per cent in September after a 0.4 per cent increase in August. Economists had tipped a 0.4 per cent lift in sales. In real (inflation-adjusted) terms, retail trade fell by 0.1 per cent (forecast: +0.3 per cent) in […]

Skilled job vacancies Skilled job vacancies: In trend terms, the Internet Vacancy Index decreased by 0.7 per cent in September – the 9th successive monthly fall. The index is 7.1 per cent lower than a year ago – the biggest annual decline in 5½ years. But the index is 8.1 per cent above the level […]

Monthly Financial Statements Budget position: Just over a week ago the July and August financial statements were released by the Department of Finance. In this report we look behind the numbers. Deficits return: In the twelve months to August 2019, the Budget deficit stood at $4,826 million (0.2 per cent of GDP). Tax refunds: Over […]

Financial Accounts; Job vacancies; Employment by Industry  Wealth: Total household wealth (net worth) rose by 1.6 per cent to a record high $10,455.3 billion in the June quarter after rising by 0.2 per cent to $10,289.6 billion in the March quarter. Over the year to June, net worth rose by 0.5 per cent. Per capita […]

Consumer sentiment  Consumer confidence: The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating rose by 0.7 per cent to 110.1 points, up from 2-year lows of 109.3 points in the previous week. But sentiment remains below the average of 114.4 points held since 2014 and the longer term average of 113.1 points since 1990. Households shun major […]

Weekly petrol prices; Manufacturing & services sector gauges Petrol: According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average price of unleaded petrol rose by 0.6 cents in the past week to a near 4-month high of 144.2 cents a litre. Melbourne pump prices: Over the past week, Melbourne unleaded petrol prices lifted by 31 […]

Weekly petrol prices: Chinese economic data Petrol: According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average price of unleaded petrol rose by 3.4 cents in the past week to 143.6 cents a litre (but was down 8.6 cents a litre on the year). Chinese data (August): Retail sales rose at a 7.5 per cent […]

Consumer confidence Consumer confidence: The Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey of consumer sentiment index fell by 1.7 per cent to 98.2 in September. Wisest places for savings: The proportion of people that ‘don’t know’ where is the wisest place to put new savings lifted from 6.4 per cent to a record (24-year) high of 8.7 per cent. […]

NAB Business survey; Weekly consumer sentiment; China data Business survey: The NAB business confidence index fell from +3.8 points in July to +1.4 points in August. The long-term average is +5.9 points. And the business conditions index fell from +2.6 points in July to a near 5-year low of +0.5 points in August. The long-term […]