Business

The Economy

ANU Economic modeller Renee Fry-McKibbin got house prices pretty right.

The people who saw crazy 2016 coming

In most years there’s room for one forecaster of the year. But not in 2016. Hardly any of our panel picked the dive in Australia’s growth rate to 1.8 per cent or the dive in the cash rate to a record-low 1.5 per cent. Wage growth was lower than all but the most pessimistic of the forecasts, and house prices ended the year far higher than the highest.

The view from Paris is a lot more hawkish than what experts think on the ground.

Wanted: More women at the RBA

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe prides himself on trying to fully answer questions leveled at him in public. It turned out to be a query from his family that flummoxed him.

Part of the the ACT's strong economic performance was continuously solid retail spending.

Business conditions jump sharply in December

Business conditions recovered strongly in December as firms reported a marked pick-up in sales and profits, the latest in a string of surveys pointing to gathering momentum going into the new year.

RBA governor Philip Lowe is expected to hold rates for now.

Rates on hold as inflation bottoms

The Reserve Bank has been given licence to leave interest rates on hold at its first board meeting for the year, after the delivery of a low inflation result in line with its expectations and signs it will lift.

CBA economist Michael Blythe says Australia is seeing "the longest period of sub‑target inflation since the late 1990s".

Reflation a long way off in Australia

Consumer prices are likely to have edged higher last quarter driven by petrol, but core inflation will still linger at worryingly low levels.

Small Business