See the world through the eyes of an economist.
These are the charts that caught my eye this week. First up, inflation came in at a palatable 1.0% in the June quarter, and 3.8% over the year. There were fears that a higher number might have forced the RBA to hike rates next week. As it is, the falling year-ended number is opening the way to rate cuts later down the track.
There was more dire news on the housing construction front. The number of residential buildings approved in Australia fell 6.5% in June. The ~163,000 dwellings approved in 2023-24 was the lowest total for a financial year since 2011-12. That’s not how you fix a housing crisis.
Detached housing approvals are largely holding up, but units are tanking. That’s a problem because strong unit construction is needed to bring housing online at scale.
And when you breakdown unit construction, the big falls are in the 4+storeys category i.e high-rise.
Finally, if you’re interested in learning a bunch of new words, have a look at the most-searched phobias in America. #1 is trypophobia – the fear of clusters of bumps and small holes. There you go.
And that’s how the world looked through the eyes of an economist this week.
DB.