See the world through the eyes of an economist: House prices, infrastructure and Taylor Swift.
The data is still largely giving us pretty pictures to paint. First up, there was the acceleration in house prices, with Corelogic’s data for February lifting a solid 0.6% in the month of February. Expect the acceleration to continue, for all the reasons I’ve written about elsewhere.
Dwelling approvals fell 9.9% in the month of January. This often tends to be a softer month, but it’s not suggesting that we’re going to see the acceleration in house building that many politicians seem to be banking on.
On the job ads front, the ANZ-Indeed index fell a further 2.8% in February. This suggests further labour market softening is ahead of us, but that was to be expected, and these numbers don’t suggest that process is getting out of control.
On the infrastructure front, the states continue to spend big, and we’re now back at levels recorded in the 2012-2014 mining boom. The big difference, as you can see, is that recently, the lion’s share is now going to transport infrastructure.
Finally, since everyone is talking about it, I found figures on how much Taylor Swift makes on a concert (well, Taylor Swift enterprises.) Each one pulls in $14 million. Taylor Swift 4EVA!
And that’s how the world looks through the eyes of an economist this week.
DB.