In economic news this week, the Business Council of Australia was said to be cautioning the Federal Government on the costs to the country of the policy changes it has made.
In Australian news this week, new data show that economic growth slowed to 0.2 per cent in the June quarter. The quarterly GDP reading brought annual growth to just 1 per cent – the weakest annual GDP result since the end of the early 1990s recession, outside of the coronavirus pandemic.
In Australian news this week, new monthly headline inflation data show that prices rose by 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to end-July, decelerating from 3.8 per cent in the year to end-June.
In Australia this week, economics and financial news was focused on the corporate earning season. Within this, there was discussion of the role that profit seeking might be playing in acerbating the difficultly of tackling inflation.
In Australian economic news, new wages growth data was slower than expected by markets and commentators. Growth in wages remained a for the second quarter at 0.8 per cent in the three months to end-June.
The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to hold its official interest steady at 4.35 per cent at its meeting yesterday. The statement that accompanied the decision highlighted the upside risks to the outlook, flagging a future rise in rates is not off the table. In particular, it noted that the latest numbers demonstrate inflation is proving persistent, having fallen very little over the past year.
In Australian economic news this week there has been discussion about the prospect that a strong inflation outturn for the June quarter, when it is published this week, will all but guarantee a tightening of monetary policy when the Reserve Bank of Australia Board meets next Tuesday.
In Australian economic and market news this week, new data show that 50,000 more people were employed in June than in May. However, unemployment also grew by 10,000 people, which meant that the unemployment rate rose slightly (by less than 0.1 percentage points) to 4.1 per cent. The participation rate rose to a near record 66.9 per cent.
