ECB’s Mario Draghi on lower rates: “The answer is no.”
Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbac
This week: a range of confidence measures, from not great to interesting for Australia; ECB confirms negative rates and further stimulus.
The economic uncertainty index shows there is still a need for strong policy responses to events that shock the economy.
JUSTIN LANE/EPA
The Reserve Bank of Australia has created a new index for uncertainty in the Australian economy based on news, financial indicators and economic variables.
Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens has a new fan.
Paul Miller/AAP
This week: the Australian economy exceeds expectations, while China continues to worry. RBA Governor Glenn Stevens has reason to smile, Janet Yellen less so.
Government spending, in part, reflects the policy commitments and borrowings of previous governments.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen told journalists that since the last federal election, the government has had spending as a percentage of GDP at GFC levels. Is that right?
The Malcolm Turnbull-led government will have to combat a gloomy Australian economic forecast in this year’s election.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The Coalition government will retain power if it can convince both business and voters it understands Australia’s economic challenges.
Is it fair to compare Australia’s economy to Greece’s?
AAP/Paul Miller
Australia is not Greece. There is no budget emergency in the sense of a patient flat-lining on the operating table. But Australia is like someone who is obese, unfit, and eating too much cheese.
Confidence numbers reflect many are waiting to see if it’s safe to invest.
Image sourced from Shutterstock.com
The economic news of the week wasn’t that bad - but there’s still plenty of timid types around.
Economic models are not likely to give Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull any magic answers on tax reform.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The gains from modest tax reform are not likely to be a revolution in Australia.
Was federal treasurer Scott Morrison right about falling government expenditure?
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Federal treasurer Scott Morrison said that expenditure as a share of the economy under this government is falling, not increasing. Is that right?
Current conditions make for a wild ride for investors.
Scott Ableman/Flickr
Low inflation gives the RBA scope to cut rates in coming months but a lot will turn on whether we continue to see persistently weak GDP growth.
We knew China couldn’t keep growing so fast.
Aly Song/reuters
This week delivered more evidence that advanced economies are suffering from secular stagnation, hampering any real growth.
It went woozy in the middle but it ended ok.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The key events that made the business community laugh, cheer and despair in 2015.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has promised to return the federal budget to surplus ‘as soon as possible’.
Aaron Bunch/AAP
The experts’ take on Scott Morrison’s first mid-year economic update.
Startups benefit from collaboration.
Image sourced from Shutterstock.com
The collaboration required to foster more startups would benefit from a national system of entrepreneurship.
Wait, what?
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Too often the government’s economic plans have relied on overly optimistic expectations of future growth.
Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Christopher Pyne says he will release his ‘inner revolutionary’ to help make Australia’s economy more innovative.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Australia’s economic complexity is declining and it’s not a good thing.
New Prime Minister and former Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is no stranger to the NBN.
Lukas Coch/AAP
New research shows Australia will be better off with the NBN than it would have been without it.
It may take a magic wand from the RBA (or the Turnbull government) for Australia to escape a recession.
Sam Mooy/AAP
Volatility is not going away any time soon, and if the US Fed decision plays the wrong way on the Australian dollar, our central bank could soon be back in the jawboning business.
Time for some fresh thinking.
Lukas Coch/AAP
To successfully achieve his goal of boosting Australian prosperity, new PM Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison will need to bust some myths about economic reform.
Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott: unable to successfully argue the case for economic reform?
Lukas Coch/AAP
Tony Abbott says sound economic management is in the DNA of the Liberals. So what went wrong?