Quarterly forecasts of sawn softwood sales provide by ABARES are firmly based in sound theory. They draw on past actual data and deploy few, if any, assumptions. The quite firmly econometric…

The wood processing sector is continuing to produce essential building materials during the current COVID 19 pandemic. Maintaining a safe work place takes on a whole new meaning when combin…

We continue the occasional series of comments and feedback from around the industry as we journey across the Bridge towards to the COVID Safe economy. To place that in context the reference to…

Australia’s unemployment rate ticked up 0.1% to 5.2% in March 2020, another indicator that the full force of the pandemic will not be felt until April at the earliest. With many businesses loc…

In the bizarre days of March leading up to the more bizarre month of April, Australians hoarded, stocked-up and spent a massive 8.5% more on retail sales than they did in February. The absolute…

The official inflation rate was 2.2% over the year-ended March 2020, within the target bands and the highest recorded annually for the last five and a half years. Quarterly inflation was just…

Confirming the earlier view that the Australian housing market (pre COVID 19) was showing green shoots, March saw the value of loans for new purchases lift 0.2% compared to the prior month. Th…