Data Diary

ABS released housing finance data for July yesterday (here) – following is their summary of the stats: Looks okay I guess – and that was the general response from our mainstream media (see the ABC’s coverage “Housing finance rises in July – but caution remains). As Westpac senior economist, Andrew Hanlan, said “It’s probably best [...]

RBA financial aggregates for July were released yesterday (here) – in brief: Housing credit increased by 0.5 per cent over July. Over the year to July, housing credit rose by 8.1 per cent. Other personal credit was flat over July. Over the year to July, other personal credit increased by 3.2 per cent. Business credit [...]

Australian lending finance for April release by the ABS today (here).  Overall trend is still down lead by contraction in consumer finance: This is consistent with recent months building approvals (here) and housing finance data (here).  The residential market has peaked and with it Australia’s credit expansion. On a more positive note, commercial lending looks [...]

Australian Lending Finance figures for March 2010 have been released by the ABS (here).  Both personal and commercial lending continued to bounce back from seasonal lows around the summer holidays – maybe commercial lending has found a floor? Taking a longer term view of the landscape, an interesting comparable might be the long trough in [...]

I started this post some months ago with the intention of digging deeper into our Australian banks reliance on the international capital markets.  In particular wanted to get an understanding of what the impact of the government guarantee funding facility would be.  I’ve been dragging my feet, so in an effort to get it out [...]

The ‘Australian housing bubble’ chorus has grown in voice recently – the IMF and the RBA, hedge funds and ‘traditional’ funds managers have all been questioning the recent price action in Australian housing.  With the Fairfax stable running a week long feature on the housing market in their various papers – the sentiment gauge is [...]

ABS released Australian Lending Finance data from February 2010 (find it here) showing that commercial finance has at last taken a turn for the better: When you have articles like this “From too much debt to too much cash” (by Stephen Shore for the AFR), it’s a reasonable guess that we might see further strengthening [...]

The RBA released lending and finance data for February today (here). The growth in housing credit remains the highlight – with business credit also looking like it is ready to turn the corner: Housing has all the feel of a speculative surge – with record volumes and clearance rates – for commentary brought to you [...]

Consistent with the global trend to deleveraging – Australia’s latest finance figures show that both businesses and consumers keep reducing their borrowings: Now sure there is some seasonality to January’s numbers – but on a like-for-like basis the total for Jan 2010 was $26.5bn, some 17% lower than last January’s $31.9bn and the lowest since [...]

By the look of the RBA’s December monetary aggregate release – the government sponsored housing and car splurge continues apace but the rest of the economy is busy paying down its debts. First up the housing finance numbers (all seasonally adjusted): Compare and contrast to the personal finance and business finance charts: The contraction in [...]