Monthly Archives: December 2012

Federal fiscal restraint also contributed to Qld’s September qtr slowdown

Posted on December 7, 2012 by

I’m grateful again to OESR for its repackaging and analysis of ABS data, as its National Accounts State Details brief released yesterday contains a handy table unpacking the September quarter fall in State Final Demand of 1.6%. I’ve reproduced the … Continue reading →

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Unemployment rate may have peaked

Posted on December 6, 2012 by

There is great news in the ABS Labour force data for November that were released today. Unemployment may have peaked and hopefully we won’t see a repeat of the awful September quarter National Accounts result for Queensland that we saw … Continue reading →

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More young women studying full-time due to sluggish labour market

Posted on December 6, 2012 by

Katherine Feeney has an interesting article in the Brisbane Times today on the decline in labour force participation (i.e. working or actively looking for work) among young women in Brisbane since the financial crisis (Young women out of work): In … Continue reading →

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Tourism recovering at slower rate in Qld than in rest of Australia

Posted on December 5, 2012 by

Queensland’s tourism industry is recovering at a slower rate than that of the rest of Australia, as shown in these charts from Tourism Queensland’s new International Tourism Snapshot:     Pete Faulkner at Conus Economics Blog has some insightful analysis of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cairns, North Queensland, Tourism | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

National Accounts confirm below trend growth – really bad result for Qld

Posted on December 5, 2012 by

The ABS National Accounts confirm what everyone has suspected – i.e. the national economy is growing below its trend rate, at 0.5% in the September quarter, which translates to an annualised growth rate of 2%, when we really want something … Continue reading →

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Maybe the electricity network hasn’t been gold plated

Posted on December 4, 2012 by

Prime Minister Julia Gillard might find it hard to convince South East Queenslanders that the electricity network has been gold plated if we see more power outages such as occurred at Paddington in Brisbane this afternoon around 5.20pm in response … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bunnings & Masters doing well, but clothing retailers struggling

Posted on December 4, 2012 by

Yesterday’s retail turnover data from the ABS were unimpressive and have added to the case for a rate cut by the RBA Board today, which is almost a certainty. Our sluggish retail turnover reflects both Australia’s high savings rate in … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Retail trade | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Recent studies show potentially large savings in power bills

Posted on December 3, 2012 by

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is right to draw attention to rising electricity prices and ask whether we can improve the regulation of our electricity networks, with a view to promoting cheaper ways of guaranteeing reliable power supplies. The Queensland Independent … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Farmers struggling to understand reams of vegetation management regulation

Posted on December 2, 2012 by

Given that Queensland has seen some egregious examples of land clearing in the past – recall George Quaid in the 1980s – there is clearly a role for Government in regulating activities affecting native vegetation. However, it is possible Government … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Environment | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment