The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has wound its forecast for economic growth down to 2.5% in 2019, just two months after providing a marginally more bullish 2.75% forecast. After two succes…

Australia’s unemployment rate continued to tick along at 5.2% in July, amounting to almost 713,000 Australians without a job. The consensus is now that full employment is around 4.5%, partl…

The latest softwood sales forecasts point to a very modest recovery over the 2019-20 financial year. Recent forecasts have struggled to reflect actual sales, representative of the challen…

In somewhat related but partly contrary news, Australia’s total trade surplus hit record levels in June 2019. Fuelled by iron ore prices and expansion of the LNG export market, exports far ou…

The largest single import grade – Dressed Structural (excl. Radiata pine) – saw import volumes peak in January 2019 at an annualised 354,026 m3. Since then it has declined quickly, falling to…

Australia’s imports of sawn softwood products slipped back to just over 782,000 m3 for the year-ended June 2019. Imports slowed very rapidly in the June quarter, with imports in June totalli…

New housing lending commitments lifted 1.9% in June, rising to $16.820 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis. The June interest rate cut, the clarity and certainty that arrives post-elect…