ANZ-Indeed Australian Job Ads rose 2.8% in April, more than offsetting the prior month’s 1.0% fall. Although job ads have fallen 6.6% over the year, they have tread water over the past six months, as illustrated below by Justin Fabo at Antipodean Macro: The bigger problem for the Australian jobs market is that labour supply The post Job ads hold up. It’s supply that’s the problem appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

The Melbourne Institute’s headline and trimmed mean monthly inflation gauges for Australia declined in April, easing inflation concerns. Headline inflation rose by only 0.09% in April to be 3.68% higher year-on-year (a two-year low): The core measure, trimmed mean, was only 0.15% in April to be up 3.18% year-on-year—the lowest result since June 2022: Excluding The post Aussie inflation gauge loses steam easing rates pressure appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

Rand Low, an Associate Professor of Quantitative Finance at Bond University, has called on Australians to slash spending on discretionary items to plunge the economy into recession and kill inflation. He is urging Australians to cut spending on “Netflix, flat-whites, movies and eating out” to trigger a “DIY recession”. “It’s true that if we eat The post Australian households wrongly blamed for inflation appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

No country has messed up immigration policy more than Canada. Every system—housing, infrastructure, employment, and healthcare—is in chaos. Unprecedented net overseas migration drove a population increase of nearly 1.3 million last year: This population boom has left Canada severely short of housing: Housing starts have lagged well behind population increase: As such, the rental vacancy The post Canada sends dire recession warning to Australia appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

Education Minister Jason Clare has announced that, as part of the upcoming budget, part of the student debt of people with Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) accounts, better known as HECS, will be forgiven. Clare said a student who graduates with an average debt of $26,500 would have about $1,200 wiped from their outstanding HELP The post Federal Budget to make HECS fairer appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

We are still in shoulder season Albo’s gas cartel is steadily pushing gas spot prices through the $12Gj contract price cap: Electricity prices are following, as usual. Electricity futures have broken the downtrend and are launching: In what is better news for the damned, the local gas price is slightly below export net-back at the The post New energy shock builds appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

On Saturday, I was interviewed by Radio 2GB’s Luke Grant. I discussed the blowout in Victoria’s debt and why it could require a federal government bailout, which would see all Australians foot the bill. Edited Transcript: The Victorian government is drowning in debt. It has the lowest credit rate in the country. It has the The post All Australians will pay for Victoria’s budget mismanagement appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

Chinese property sales look better, but it is only the timing of the Labour Day holiday: Steel demand and supply are terrible vis MySteel: Developer funding remains shut: LGFV funding is way behind the curve: Still nothing but avoid signals for iron ore. The post Chinese property and iron ore propects sink on appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

CoreLogic has released its quarterly rental review, which shows that rental growth accelerated in the first quarter of 2024 amid record levels of net overseas migration. The median weekly rent value across all Australian homes reached a new record high of $627 per week at the end of March, with rental costs ranging from $770 The post Australia’s rental crisis deepens as immigration demand swamps supply appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more

Goldman with the note. USD: Not so fast. We wrote last week that US policy-led repricing tends to lead to the most disruptive type of broad Dollar strength. But the message from policymakers—and data—this week delivered the opposite. The policy pushback of course came from both sides, with Japan’s apparent intervention setting the tone for The post Major bank: Australian dollar still under geenback steamroller appeared first on MacroBusiness ..read more