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Home prices; Manufacturing Home prices: The CoreLogic Home Value Index of national home prices rose by 0.7 per cent in March to be up 7.5 per cent on the year. Capital city home prices also rose by 0.7 per cent (up 8.9 per cent on the year). House and apartment prices rose by 0.7 per […]

Consumer confidence; Private sector credit; New home sales; China data Consumer confidence: The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating fell by 9.6 per cent to a record low of 65.3 points – the lowest reading since the survey began in 1973. Lending: Private sector credit (effectively outstanding loans) rose by 0.4 per cent in February […]

Weekly petrol prices Petrol prices: According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average price of unleaded petrol fell by 3.5 cents to a 13-month low of 127.6 cents a litre last week. The metropolitan price fell by 3.4 cents to 126.8 cents a litre and the regional price was down 3.8 cents to […]

Consumer confidence; Manufacturing & services activity Consumer confidence: The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating fell by 27.8 per cent last week. The index fell from 100.7 to 72.2 – the lowest reading since the 1990 recession. ‘Flash’ CBA purchasing manager index (PMI): The CBA composite PMI fell from 49.0 to 40.7 in March. The […]

Retail trade Retail trade: Early estimates show that retail trade rose by 0.4 per cent in February. Retail trade data is important for consumer-focused companies. What does it all mean? It was still relatively early days in the coronavirus crisis in February. At that time the main impact on the Australian economy was from a […]

Chinese economic activity contracts Tourism; Chinese economic data; Reserve Bank statement Tourism: Tourist arrivals fell by 3.3 per cent in January to be down by 2 per cent from a year ago – the biggest annual decline in 8 years. Aussie tourist departures fell by 1 per cent in January, but were up 1.5 per […]

Economic and financial perspectives Just over a month ago, on February 10, we wrote our first report on the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. At that time it was known as the Novel (new) Coronavirus pneumonia (NCP). We updated the situation on February 28 and we now provided a further update on the current situation with the […]

Economic news The Federal Government has compiled a $17.6 billion package of measures that aim to support businesses and the most vulnerable consumers in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The details of the package are at: https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus The stimulus package will provide support for business and the overall economy. The Big Picture The […]

Consumer sentiment; Lending; Health package; RBA speech Health package: The Federal Government has unveiled a $2.4 billion health package to assist Australians in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Home loans: The value of home loans rose by 4.6 per cent in January with owner-occupier loans up 5.0 per cent and investor loans up […]

Weekly petrol prices Oil price war: A production agreement between OPEC+ nations (largely OPEC and Russia) has ended. Global oil prices fell 10 per cent on Friday and fell another 26 per cent today. Petrol prices: Due to a holiday in Canberra, the Australian Institute of Petroleum will publish the regular weekly national average petrol […]