Petrol prices limp, not leap, higher

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Weekly petrol prices Petrol prices are limping, not leaping higher. According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol rose by just 0.2 cents

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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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The threat of inflation in Asian & emerging markets

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Key points Rising inflation is becoming a major concern in Asia and other emerging countries. So far it’s largely due to higher food prices. Non-food inflation remains reasonably benign. However,

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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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Global REITs to deliver 8-12% returns in 2011 underpinned by economic improvement and dividends, says INGIM

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Global Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are expected to continue to deliver positive returns for the third year running, as an improving global economy and growing dividends help them continue

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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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Share prices, consumer spending and the GFC

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In this issue we look at share markets in Australia and around the world – how they have fared in the GFC and what may lie ahead as the debt

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