Category Archives: Macroeconomy

CCIQ hoping for relief from high Aussie dollar

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Gene Tunny

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland was quick to welcome the temporary decline in the Australian dollar below parity with the US dollar today: Some Aussie Dollar respite for Queensland businesses Clearly many Queensland businesses, especially in tourism, are … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Qld Treasury expects weak employment growth in short-term

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Gene Tunny

Yesterday’s new ABS labour force data were weird (see OESR information brief). While the Queensland unemployment rate came down to 5.1% seasonally adjusted from 5.5% the month before, employment barely grew. So while unemployment fell, it may have fallen because … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy | 1 Comment

Cashed-up miners mean big difference in retail turnover in mining and non-mining States

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Gene Tunny

OESR has finally released its April 2012 Economic Review (obviously it’s taken a while to clear through the new Treasurer’s office), and it contains this interesting chart showing the stark difference in retail trade performance between the mining and non-mining … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Mining, Retail trade | Leave a comment

Qld has strong pulse, but rate cut needed to revive southern states

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Gene Tunny

The Reserve Bank is widely expected to cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent (or 25 basis points) today. The rate cut is probably necessary to revive the economies of southern states, which Queensland businesses have declining confidence in, according … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy | Leave a comment

Growth forecasts believable, particularly given Can Do attitude to mining (even on Cape York)

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Gene Tunny

A couple of recent economic forecasts, from the Treasury and my former Treasury colleague Peter Downes, suggest the Australian economy will remain resilient and may even surprise us with stronger than expected performance: Treasury forecasts of 3.25pc growth to put … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy, Mining | Leave a comment

CommSec’s State of the States misleading on Qld’s economic performance

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Gene Tunny

The latest edition of CommSec’s State of the States is out today, and it has WA ranked number one, a long way ahead of all other States, including Queensland, based on comparisons of eight economic indicators including economic growth, retail … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy | Leave a comment

Property industry confident Qld will out-perform other States

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Gene Tunny

The latest Property Council of Australia-ANZ Property Industry Confidence Survey found the industry is confident Queensland’s economy will out-perform other States and the property market will improve over 2012 (ANZ analysis: Confidence survey): As the latest PCA-ANZ survey results indicate, … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, Macroeconomy, Mining | Leave a comment

How exposed is Qld to a downturn in southern States?

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Gene Tunny

After reading Alan Kohler’s brilliant column at the Drum yesterday (Business panic at Government calm) I started thinking about how exposed the Queensland economy is to a downturn in the southern States. Typically Australian States go into recession together, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Mining | 2 Comments

Annual cap on mining approvals undesirable and impractical

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Gene Tunny

In the Cairns Post today, in an article with the over-the-top title of People desert Cairns in droves, there is reference to the South of the Embley mining project which is being held up by the need to secure environmental … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Mining, North Queensland, VET | 1 Comment

A case for slowing down the mining boom – aren’t we doing that already?

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Gene Tunny

In today’s Sydney Morning Herald, Ross Gittins discusses a new paper from the Australia Institute on the case to slow down the mining boom. I may be biased, but I thought we already were slowing it down? For example, see … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Mining | 2 Comments