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2 months ago | 
westpac.com.au | James Thornhill |Josh Wall |Matthew Hassan |Liam Cormican
The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut interest rates for the first time in four years, offering much-needed relief to households struggling with cost-of-living pressures, but sounded a cautious note on the prospect of further easing. The RBA lowered the cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.10 per cent at its February board meeting.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
westpac.com.au | James Thornhill |Flora C.Y. Lee |Josh Wall |Matthew Hassan
As well as the ongoing unsettled global backdrop, it is possible that consumers were reacting to news around the Australian dollar’s sharp drop against the US dollar, which resulted in some negative headlines about the outlook for interest rates and the broader economy. The sub-index showing consumers’ assessment of their finances compared with a year ago reversed gains seen in December, falling 7.8 per cent in the month to 77.7. The decline was particularly marked for outright homeowners.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
westpac.com.au | Liam Cormican |Carolyn A. McCann |Marina Gainulina |Matthew Hassan
The U.S. Federal Reserve has kicked off its easing cycle with a bigger-than-expected 50 basis point interest rate cut, but don’t expect that to prompt an earlier policy shift from the Reserve Bank. The Fed move makes the RBA an outlier among global central banks in not having begun to cut rates, with the European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and the RBNZ all having eased in recent months.
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
westpaciq.com.au | Luci Ellis |Matthew Hassan
This week we released our refreshed forecasts in our September Market Outlook (PDF 2MB) publication. While the short-run outlook is broadly the same, the balance of risks on growth has changed further out by enough to alter our base case for growth into 2026. This is partly because the mix and timing of demand growth has shifted.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
westpaciq.com.au | Luci Ellis |Matthew Hassan
Local markets were heavily focused this week on the June quarter national accounts. Our note (PDF 712KB) on the subject highlighted the key points. Foremost amongst these is that despite strong population growth, private sector demand is stagnant. Household consumption went backwards in the quarter, which was weaker than even we expected. Public demand did all the heavy lifting on growth, as it has done for the past few quarters.
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Sep 4, 2024 | 
westpac.com.au | James Thornhill |Sarah Conte |Hannah Stenning |Matthew Hassan
Australia’s major city property markets are seeing a growing divergence in performance, according to Westpac’s latest Housing Pulse report, with Perth setting a blistering pace for price gains. The Western Australia capital is on track for a rise close to 20 per cent this year, adding to strong gains in 2023 which broke a period of almost a decade where housing prices basically went sideways.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
westpac.com.au | Ben Young |James Thornhill |Sarah Williamson |Matthew Hassan
The biggest improvement in the month came in views on family finances compared to a year ago. That sub-index surged 11.7 per cent - the biggest monthly gain in nine years (excluding the COVID period) – to a two-year high of 70.9, albeit still a very weak level overall. The monthly rise was particularly strong amongst low-income earners.
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Jul 17, 2024 | 
westpac.com.au | James Thornhill |Josh Wall |Sarah Williamson |Matthew Hassan
Westpac economists expect the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to cut its official cash rate in November after June quarter inflation cooled at a quicker pace than expected. They’re now pencilling in a 25 basis point cut in the OCR before year-end, having previously forecast the first cut to come in February 2025.
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May 22, 2024 | 
westpac.com.au | Kripa Krithivasan |Ben Young |James Thornhill |Matthew Hassan
There were two big developments heading into the May sentiment survey. The first was the stronger-than-expected inflation data, which sparked concerns that the RBA may need to raise interest rates further. The second was the federal budget, which contained several measures aimed at easing cost-of-living pressures. Among the component indexes, the assessment of finances compared to a year ago and assessments of whether now was a good time to buy a major household item both declined.
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May 15, 2024 | 
westpac.com.au | James Thornhill |Kriti Jain |Flora C.Y. Lee |Matthew Hassan
Here are some of Pat’s key insights:- While the budget contains measures that will reduce the out-of-pocket cost of essential items such as electricity and medicine, this will also free up income for households to spend elsewhere, so the net effect on inflation evens out. - The government has earmarked $1.2 billion over five years to build more homes and train more construction workers to support social and affordable housing.
