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☆ Australia Oct inflation slows more than expected as goods prices fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Stella Qiu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

For the month, CPI fell 0.3%, driven by declines in petrol, rent and holiday travel. A closely watched measure of core inflation, the trimmed mean, rose an annual 5.3% in October, easing from 5.4% the previous month. "It's hard to find bad news in Australia's October inflation print," said Harry Murphy Cruise, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. Prices for tradable goods fell 1.6% in October from a month earlier. It also left the door open to further tightening if necessary to meet its annual inflation target of 2-3%.

Persons: Daniel Munoz, Harry Murphy Cruise, Jonathan Kearns, Wayne Cole, Stella Qiu, Lincoln, Sam Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, U.S ., Australian Bureau, Statistics, Moody’s, Reserve Bank Board, Reserve Bank of Australia, Challenger, Thomson Locations: Australia

SYDNEY, July 28 (Reuters) - Foreign bank lending to Australian office real estate hit a record high in the first quarter as overseas lenders continued to stump up cash for a struggling corner of the property market out of favour with local banks. The data does not identify individual banks, however a separate dataset covering overall corporate lending showed European, Japanese, Singaporean and Chinese banks had led the increase in foreign lending since 2019. Loans from Australia's biggest banks fell A$2.3 billion to A$83 billion over the same period, similar to levels in late 2021, the data showed. So, as Australian lenders have retreated to the relative safety of retail mortgages, foreign banks have stepped up. Sydney was the worst-performing major Asian office market in the first quarter, according to research from global property services firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

Persons: Jonathan Kearns, Kearns, Jones Lang LaSalle, Lewis Jackson, Stephen Coates Organizations: SYDNEY, prudential, Australia's, Challenger, Reserve Bank of Australia, Reuters, Sydney, Investment, Thomson Locations: Australia, Asia, Europe

SYDNEY, July 14 (Reuters) - Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Michele Bullock will take over from Governor Philip Lowe in September and has already flagged that leading the country's central bank through a period of change will be a major priority. Bullock, the first woman to helm the country's central bank, will have the task of leading the bank through its biggest internal shakeup in decades while also maintaining the fight against inflation. "I wasn't sure I would ever be in this position," Bullock said in a 2022 interview with her alma mater. "I never thought that Guy Debelle, who was the deputy governor, would leave the Bank. A review into the central bank published in April recommended sweeping changes including the setup of a separate specialist board to manage monetary policy, less frequent meetings and more public communication.

Persons: Michele Bullock, Philip Lowe, Bullock, Anthony Albanese, Jim Chalmers, Michele, Jonathan Kearns, Bullock's, Guy Debelle, Lowe, Su, Lin Ong, Lewis Jackson, Stella Qiu, Praveen Menon Organizations: SYDNEY, Reserve Bank, University of New, London School of Economics, Challenger, RBC Capital Markets, Thomson Locations: University of New England, Armidale, Sydney, Lincoln

☆ Australia recession risk heightens after RBA warns of bumpy path to low inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Stella Qiu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

For a year, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe has been talking of successfully navigating a narrow path to lower inflation while keeping unemployment near 50-year lows. He expects quarterly growth to average just a 0.1% over the next four quarters, with a 50% chance that the economy would enter a recession. Jonathan Kearns, chief economist at investment firm Challenger and a former RBA executive, says the risk of trying to hold on to job gains was that higher inflation expectations hardened and kept the actual inflation rate high. And pushing rates higher is increasing the chance that Australia goes into a recession," said Kearns, who headed the RBA's domestic markets department until earlier this year. A survey of union officials cited by Lowe showed that medium-term inflation expectations have risen to a 3-4% range.

Persons: Philip Lowe, Lowe, Paul Bloxham, HSBC's, Bloxham, Jonathan Kearns, Kearns, Ivan Colhoun, Stella Qiu, Shri Navaratnam Organizations: CBA, HSBC, SYDNEY, Reserve Bank of Australia, Global Commodities, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Challenger, National Australia Bank, Thomson Locations: Australia, New Zealand

Banks and corporations use the market to manage interest rate risks and traders depend on it as reference for pricing other assets. To make a swap, market participants turn to a dealer or bank to facilitate the deal. DRAINEDPart of the issue is a lack of bond market supply. Last week, the RBA's head of domestic markets, Jonathan Kearns, noted the swaps market dysfunction. Nor are other swap markets globally seeing similar pressures.

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