Yesterday
- Opinion
- Interest rates
There’s a compelling case for RBA reducing interest rates on Tuesday
The board has created expectations of no rate cut at the final meeting of 2024. That’s the mirror of its 2021 error when it implied there would be no rise.
- Ross Garnaut
- Opinion
- Leading Indicators
How Victoria became one of the rich world’s most indebted states
Victoria is the fourth-most indebted advanced economy state government outside the US. It may soon find there’s a fine line between nation-building and overbuilding.
- Michael Read
- Exclusive
- Trade wars
Trump tariffs ‘not too disruptive’, Goldman’s top economist predicts
He expects the US president-elect’s slug on imports will be smaller than threatened, but warns they would hit growth hard if fully implemented.
- John Kehoe
This Month
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Public sector is strangling economy to death
Like a parasitic twin, the healthy economy is sucking the life out of the sick economy. Something has to give.
- Steven Hamilton
- Opinion
- Letters to the Editor
Labor lacking business nous
Readers’ letters on Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the state of the economy, Labor’s stance on Israel, the Melbourne arson attack and payroll tax.
- Opinion
- Economics explained
Why price discrimination can be a good thing
The online age may make it easier for companies to predict what we’re willing to pay. But it also makes it easier for us to share stories of nasty corporate behaviour.
- Richard Holden
Fed on track to cut rates: Wall Street’s view of jobs data
November’s payrolls report keeps open the door for a quarter point rate cut this month, though next week’s CPI data still needs to be cleared.
- Timothy Moore
Meet our Business People of the Year | GDP grumpiness | CBA’s rare slip
This week on the Chanticleer podcast, James and AFR Editor-in-Chief James Chessell take you inside the AFR’s Business Person of the Year awards, examine business’ angst over the economy and look at an uncharacteristic political blunder by the Commonwealth Bank.
Public sector jobs surge props up economy
Employment in the public sector is growing at double the pace of the private sector.
- John Kehoe
- Analysis
- Australian economy
Australia’s economic problems have been brewing for years
We are in the most prolonged downturn since the 1991 recession. It’s time for a treasurer to do something about it.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- The AFR View
The treasurer must ask what he can do for business
Jim Chalmers is asking business to dig Australia’s economy out of the hole. But he also needs to say what he is going to do to help businesses invest and lift the nation’s embarrassingly poor productivity.
- The AFR View
- Exclusive
- Australian economy
Australia is now an economic ‘problem child’: McKinsey
Business investment is at recession levels as the country’s productivity growth slumps to 30th out of 35 rich countries, says a new report.
- John Kehoe and Michael Read
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Five reforms Chalmers must tackle to kickstart growth
Taking on big reforms may entail political risks, but the alternative is to continue on a path of genteel decline.
- David Alexander
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Wesfarmers CEO: ‘We can’t just wait around for rates to fall’
As Rob Scott says goodbye to an unsung hero of his own investment success, he says Australia’s tepid GDP growth can be a rallying point for the private sector.
- James Thomson
You’re part of the growth problem, business leaders tell Chalmers
The bosses of BHP and Wesfarmers have called on Labor to overhaul the uncompetitive tax system and reverse changes to IR laws if it wants a private sector recovery.
- Michael Read, Carrie LaFrenz, Elouise Fowler and John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
Michele Bullock could be the Maradona of Australian central banking
The Reserve Bank governor is weaving through the inflation challenge with a hawkish comment here, a dovish quip there and a steady interest rate.
- Paul Bloxham
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Business Person awards celebrate founder success
AirTrunk and Chemist Warehouse’s founder stories underline the importance of innovative and risk-taking entrepreneurship, perceptiveness, and persistence to build wealth- and job-creating enterprises.
- The AFR View
Chalmers admits business must pull Australia out of growth slump
Jim Chalmers says record government spending is stopping the economy from shrinking, but economists say it is delaying rate cuts and crowding out the private sector.
- Michael Read
- Opinion
- Letters to the Editor
Emerson overstates RBA’s impact on jobs
Readers’ letters on what 4.5 per cent unemployment really means; delay of the Nature Positive Bill; Reserve Bank independence; office party activities; and South Australia’s high-voltage lines.
CBA hires Treasury deputy as chief economist
Luke Yeaman is the latest hire for the big banks out of the government department or the Reserve Bank of Australia.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Tax reform
Pay states to slash payroll tax on jobs
A National Reform Fund could use federal funds to incentivise states and territories to align their policies.
- Bran Black
- Opinion
- Australian economy
No amount of lipstick on this pig can hide the economic stagnation
The national accounts make grim reading and are indisputably worse than expected.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
This is the problem that CEOs have with GDP
Another tepid set of growth numbers will heap more pressure on the government. But it’s the next 20 years that both sides of politics need to think about.
- James Thomson
- Opinion
- Interest rates
The Reserve Bank is not smashing the jobs market
Claims the central bank is needlessly throwing vulnerable Australians out of work are not backed up by the statistics.
- John Kehoe
Record government spending props up GDP
Public servant pay rises, energy bill subsidies, discounted transport fares and infrastructure spending pushed government spending to a fresh record last quarter.
- Michael Read
