Business Update – 30 October 2024

Welcome to our Weekly Digest – stay in the know with some recent news updates relevant to business and the economy.

How Australia’s housing market compares to the rest of the world

Australia lags behind much of the world when it comes to home ownership, and households are taking on far more debt to buy a house than in other similar nations. Less than two-thirds of Australians (63 per cent) own their home outright or with a mortgage, according to a new report from AMP.

Rates in Australia likely to stay higher for longer

Australia’s economic landscape is navigating through challenging waters, with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) signaling that interest rates are likely to remain elevated for an extended period.

Calls for Canberra’s retirement villages to be more transparent

Around the country, residents have raised concerns about retirement villages and their practices of charging large exit, maintenance and refurbishment fees, which have sometimes come as a shock. In the ACT, some have called for more avenues for managing complaints, while prospective residents are urged to seek independent financial and legal advice before entering into a retirement village contract.

Australian economy struggles under ‘burden of structural challenges’

Deloitte has outlined some of the major challenges facing the Australian economy in its September 2024 edition of its Business Outlook, particularly those on the supply side.

The ASEAN opportunity: Can Australia finally crack the code?

Former Macquarie boss Nicholas Moore was back in Bangkok this month, leading his third business delegation in two months with a “very clear message”, not just for Thailand but its south-east Asian neighbours as well. That message, according to Moore, is that Australia is ready to strengthen its two-way trade and investment with the ASEAN region, and this time it’s serious.

Recession wreaks havoc across Australia’s market sector

Australians are experiencing the longest per capita recession on record, with six straight quarterly contractions and seven declines in the preceding eight quarters to Q2 2024.

What’s wrong with Australia’s carbon credit markets?

New findings from the Transforming Energy Markets Research Centre have identified changing government regulations as one of the reasons behind the very low and highly volatile prices of carbon credit units in Australia.

NAB Business Pulse

The message for business owners reading the latest NAB Business Pulse is hold tight, there’s good news around the corner. And that good news is a sooner-than-predicted first cash rate cut, with NAB Group Economics now expecting the Reserve Bank to start lowering rates in February 2025 – a full quarter earlier than expected.

The misery business: why economists should cheer up about low unemployment

Record numbers of Australians are employed – that’s a great thing, despite what the interest rate doomers are telling you, says Greg Jericho.

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