Investment records biggest fall in 3½-years

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  New business investment in buildings or equipment fell by 4.7 per cent in the March – the weakest result in 3½-years and below forecasts for a +0.5 increase.  Mining

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Smallest Budget Deficit in almost four years

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In the year to April, the budget deficit stood at $32,332 million (around 2.0 per cent of GDP), the smallest deficit in 44 months. What do the figures show? The

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Weekly market and economic update

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The past week saw sharp falls in share markets from mid week triggered by a combination of worries that the US Federal Reserve will prematurely slow down its quantitative easing

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Threadneedle economic and market update

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Mark Burgess, Chief Investment Officer at Threadneedle Investments comments on recent market developments: Without doubt, the most significant economic development of 2013 has been the transformation of economic policy in

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Weekly market & economic update

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Global shares continued to move higher over the last week, but another trend that’s clearly evident is the continuing slide in the $A. The past week saw it fall decisively

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Will ‘Abenomics’ work?

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A daring experiment is under way in the world’s second-biggest modern economy. “Abenomics”, formulated by a group of “reflationists”, is about firing “three arrows” at Japan’s economy with the aim

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Home loans soar but business confidence still gloomy

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The number of new owner-occupier housing loans rose by 5.2 per cent in March, the strongest rise in four years. But the share of loans taken up by first home

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Weekly economic & market update

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Share markets continued to move ahead over the past week helped by a combination of reasonable profit results, a further fading of the fiscal austerity fetish in Europe with France

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Weekly economic and market update

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Despite concerns about slowing global business conditions PMIs, share markets continued to surge over the past week with much better than expected US jobs data providing an additional push to

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Lack of building raises possibility of an interest rate cut

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Dwelling approvals fell by 5.5 per cent in March, after rising by 3.0 per cent in February. Approvals are up 3.9 per cent over the year. House approvals fell by

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