State of the States: economic performance report

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

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Limited long-term impact on global markets from earthquake

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While the recent events in Japan will have a short-term impact on the global economy, history suggests that in the long term, markets will not be majorly affected, according to

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Threadneedle Investment Strategy Update April 2011

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Risk assets have absorbed an awful lot of bad news over the past month and their resilience can be ascribed partly to the attractive valuations that have long underpinned our

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning April 17 2011

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Upcoming economic and financial market events x The big picture Aussie businesses have to cope with a lot. The global environment has been far from stable in recent years, what with

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Lloyds International: A global perspective on the local economy

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Lloyds chief economist on inflation, interest rates and the outlook for the Australian economy x The Australian economy will continue to grow rapidly in 2011 buoyed by the continuing resources

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Jobs up, but slowdown clear over time

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Labour force Employment rebounded in March, lifting by 37,800 people. Economists had tipped job gains of 20,000 (range from +5,000 to +30,000 jobs). The February result was revised to show job

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Trade account back in the red

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Trade: New Vehicle Sales Australia has recorded its first trade deficit in 11 months. The trade balance eroded from a surplus of $1,433 million in January to a deficit of

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Home loans fall to near decade lows

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Housing finance Loans for the purchase of newly erected dwelling slumped by 12 per cent in February. Over the past three months loans are down almost 36 per cent – marking

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Building approvals slump; QLD retailers benefit from rebuilding

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Building Approvals; Retail trade; Private Sector Credit Council approvals to build news homes fell by 7.4 per cent in February after sliding by a revised 11.6 per cent in the

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Mining drives Aussie sharemarket

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Financial market trends The mining sector is now the primary driving force behind the Australian sharemarket. In terms of volumes of shares traded in March, mining volumes were double that

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