Parties splash the cash as election campaign heats up
Labor and the coalition will spruik centrepiece policies announced at their respective campaign launches to win over voters in a critical week for the election.
Labor and the coalition will spruik centrepiece policies announced at their respective campaign launches to win over voters in a critical week for the election.
An escalating trade war has slashed the odds of interest rate cuts for Australian mortgage-holders, including a potential mega cut weeks after the election.
The RBA's first rate cut since 2020 has buoyed consumers with the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer confidence survey posting a three-year high.
Promising housing data and a return to growth in real household incomes augur well for the Australian economy in 2025.
Slowing inflation helped convince the Reserve Bank to cut rates at its last meeting but uncertainty over tariffs was also a factor, the deputy governor says.
Headline inflation rate has held steady at 2.5 per cent in January, with the all-important underlying measure edging 0.1 percentage point higher.
Australia's historically affordable regional housing markets have continued to demonstrate resilience, compared to a price decline in capital cities.
Survey of 32 leading Australian economists has tipped the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates this week, but more than one in five remain unconvinced.
Donald Trump's re-election as US President could have adverse implications for the Australian economy but hasn't changed the RBA's inflation view.
Inflation after COVID-19 would not have been so brutal if post pandemic support had been less wasteful and interest rates moved earlier, a review says.