Arrivals up but the China boom is waning

Data from the ABS for short term arrivals and departures in January show that, while total arrivals grew 2.2% (seasonally adjusted) from a year ago, the number coming from China is in decline. The seasonally adjusted data can be very volatile when considering the small data set of Chinese arrivals, so …read more

CAPEX falls further as QLD gets smashed by the mining investment slowdown

Today’s release of Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) data for the first quarter of 2015 has come in weaker than expected as buildings and structures investment fell faster than forecast. The seasonally adjusted chain volume measure shows CAPEX was down 4.4% in Q1 from the previous quarter and fell 5.3% from a …read more

Chinese arrivals continue to grow but weaker A$ is slowing Aussies going abroad

Data released by the ABS today confirms that, while the number of arrivals into the country approached 9 million for the past 12 months and the rate of growth exceeds 8%, Aussies are starting to feel the impact of a weaker A$ and the rate at which foreign travel is …read more

Has Queensland been in recession?

Treasurer Curtis Pitt has made a speech in Parliament today claiming that through the last two quarters of 2014 Queensland was in a “recession we didn’t have to have”. Putting aside the obvious political point scoring going on, is there any sense in which we can claim that Queensland has …read more

Katter’s bizarre take on labour numbers

Over the years we’ve got used to Bob Katter’s rather eccentric views and often distorted view of the world. In a piece in today’s Innisfail Advocate he rails against the Federal budget for apparently not stopping “600,000 migrants a year” from taking our jobs. He then points to an “additional …read more

RBA Minutes confirm easing bias still in place

Any concerns that the market might have had two weeks ago about the May 5th cut to the Cash Rate can be laid to rest by the Minutes of the meeting released this morning (and available here). The take-away message from the Minutes can be found in one of the …read more

Cairns unemployment rate hits 43 month low of 7.2%

The ABS regional labour market data released this morning confirms the ongoing improvement in the jobs market in Cairns (see here for last month’s post). As always the raw unadjusted data needs to be set aside in favour of our Conus Trend series to get a true picture of what …read more

Arrivals data dips slightly in Nov but the trend upwards continues

Just a little over a week after we saw the release of the October data for short-term arrivals and departures (see here) we now have the November data as the ABS plays catch-up. Today’s data shows arrivals down slightly from Oct but nevertheless still up 6.5% from the same time …read more

Some good news for small business but the Budget puts off any attempt at fiscal repair

The 2015-16 Budget announced last night contains some welcome initiatives for small business. The reduction in the tax rate for small business to 28.5% will actually impact only a few companies, so the 5% tax discount (up to a max of $1,000 per individual) for small non-incorporated businesses is perhaps …read more

Building approvals continue to climb in the Far North

The ABS data for regional housing approvals in March released this morning show the positive trend in the Far North continuing, despite the headline data for Cairns weakening slightly from Feb. The unadjusted data from the ABS is notoriously volatile so we need to consider the Conus Trend series to …read more

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