by Stephen Roberts | 15 Jul, 2013 | Economic Weekly, Laminar Economist Stephen Roberts
Australian GDP growth has slowed to around 2.5% annual pace in the first half of 2013, around half a percentage point below potential growth, as the sharp slowing in mining investment has started to bite. The issue is what is coming along to take up the slack as...
by Stephen Roberts | 17 Jun, 2013 | Economic Weekly, Laminar Economist Stephen Roberts
The Australian sharemarket rose strongly on Friday, breaking a run of almost continuous daily falls since late May. While it is too early to say whether the gloom from May has started to go away, there are good reasons in our view why risk assets should rebound over...
by Stephen Roberts | 13 Jun, 2013 | Economic Weekly, Laminar Economist Stephen Roberts
Employment was a touch stronger than the market expected in May up 1,100 (consensus -10,000) although April was revised to +45,000 from +50,100. Employment growth averaging 23,000 a month through the first two months of Q2 is reasonably strong. The unemployment rate...
by Stephen Roberts | 11 Jun, 2013 | Economics, Laminar Economist Stephen Roberts
Housing finance commitments for owner occupiers rose in April by 0.8% mom, softer than market expectations (+2.0%) and after the March increase was revised down to +4.8% from +5.2%. Interestingly, the softness in housing finance commitments was confined to Victoria,...
by Stephen Roberts | 13 May, 2013 | Economics, Laminar Economist Stephen Roberts
The number of new housing finance commitments to owner occupiers jumped by a stronger than expected 5.2% in March building on gains of 2.1% in February and 0.7% in January. Excluding refinancings, home loan commitments jumped an even stronger 6.8% in March. The...
