Today
Loosen rules so banks can write more home loans: Liberal MP
Liberal Andrew Bragg has endorsed a call by bankers to relax home loan regulations to make it easier for first home buyers to enter the housing market.
- John Kehoe
Investors trim rate rise bets as retail sales growth hits 2½-year low
Annual growth in retail sales has fallen to its lowest level since the pandemic as cash-strapped households tighten their belts.
- Michael Read
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Magic debt thinking collides with inflation and higher rates
Since the GFC, economists have suggested that using debt to finance government spending is a free lunch. But the tide has turned in the past two years.
- Kenneth Rogoff
Rein in states’ spending to help RBA, Chalmers told
Governments are on track to loosen their budgets by $50 billion in the middle of an inflation crisis and rising interest rates.
- John Kehoe
Yesterday
Budget spending cuts must ‘take heat off’ interest rates
To limit the RBA’s interest rate rises, tens of billions of dollars in federal and state government expenditure must be unwound, economists say.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Australia’s last-mile inflation looks like the last 10 miles
The Albanese government took power promising to increase wages. It was a risky gamble that is not paying off.
- Richard Holden
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
RBA must ignore the band of economists pushing a rate rise
The Reserve Bank should not be firing up its interest rate models on the strength of inflation that is now steadily dropping into target range.
- Craig Emerson
Call to put fixing structural deficit at heart of budget policy
UNSW professor Richard Holden said Treasurer Jim Dr Chalmers had failed to adopt clear strategy in his first two budgets, which lacked accountability.
- Ronald Mizen
Labor urged to restrict rather than ban non-compete clauses
Leading economists have urged the Albanese government to significantly restrict the use of non-compete clauses to revive Australia’s ailing productivity growth.
- Euan Black
This Month
RBA should maintain its ‘wait and see’ approach to rates
Readers’ letters on what is playing into the Reserve Bank’s thinking on interest rates; what must change to make negative gearing fair; Woodside’s climate conundrum; and Peter Dutton’s nuclear problem.
The apartment supply conundrum behind Perth’s housing price surge
There’s plenty of demand and many projects approved, but sky-high construction costs have left developers asking for more government money.
- Updated
- Tom Rabe
- Opinion
- Australian economy
If Musk wins high stakes global battle, X could still lose the war
A court victory in the legal stoush over Australia’s eSafety commissioner’s take-down order might invite government intervention that bolsters regulation of the social media giants.
- Patrick Considine
- Opinion
- Interest rates
How Boomers are busting hopes for rate cuts
Macro commentator James Aitken says interest rates may have to head higher after we underestimated the increasingly powerful wealth effect.
- Jonathan Shapiro
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Chalmers’ narrow budget path is now in peril
The sudden change in the interest rate outlook this week could be political dynamite for the Albanese government and the budget.
- The AFR View
Government spending surge to fuel sticky inflation
Monthly spending figures show the federal budget bottom-line in the nine months to March was running $4.1 billion ahead of projections from December,
- Michael Read
Imploding Star Entertainment, Woodside’s energy battle & inflation runs hot, again
This week on the Chanticleer podcast, James & Anthony look at casino operator Star Entertainment’s second brush with disaster, go inside the battle over energy giant Woodside’s climate plan, and ask where rates go next after hot inflation numbers.
Chalmers confronts a diabolical budget conundrum
Just a few months ago, the Australian economy was shaping up perfectly for the Labor government and its treasurer. Then came this week’s inflation data.
- Updated
- Ronald Mizen
- Exclusive
- Interest rates
RBA to lift cash rate to 5.1pc, says top forecaster
Judo Bank’s Warren Hogan, who was ranked 2023’s most accurate forecaster, predicts a resurgent economy will force the RBA to lift rates to 5.1 per cent.
- Michael Read
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
Why inflation is proving sticky on both sides of the Atlantic
What matters is not what is happening right now, but what will happen in the months or even years ahead, as past policy works through the system.
- Updated
- Martin Wolf
Why China’s slowing economy is Australia’s problem
This week on The Fin podcast, North Asia correspondent Michael Smith talks about the changes in China over the past six years and what its slowing economy means for Australian prosperity.