Open mouth operations

Luci Ellis says the RBA does not want to promise what it will do, but it is increasingly trying to tell us what it thinks

Breakfast briefing: Elections, war prep, & rate decisions ahead this week

A big week ahead of central bank decisions; inflation elevated, while PMIs positive; Canada retail positive; EU inflation expectations hold; war drums beat louder; UST 10yr at 4.99%; gold holds low and oil holds high; AU$1 = 70.4 USc

Is a Chinese implosion looming?

Navneeraj Sharma & Arvind Subramanian identify political, economic, and fiscal weaknesses in China that could turn into a perfect storm

The catch for buyers as house prices tumble nationwide

House prices have recorded their steepest decline on record, with all eight capital cities experiencing a fall in the September quarter

What's driving persistent inflation?

Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan argues that concerns over the AI buildout, bond yields, and public debt cannot be divorced from supply shocks

Today's changes to interest rates

Here are the changes the main banks have made to retail interest rates on Thursday, October 22, 2026

The institutional roots of policy nonsense

Jim O'Neill sees siloed interests driving colossal market failures and out-of-control public spending

Independent AI auditing now

Angela Huyue Zhang & Yue Zhao explain why formal, objective assessments are needed to ensure AI safety and expose marketing hype

Japan needs higher interest rates

Koichi Hamada laments the weakness of the yen and call for more aggressive monetary tightening in Japan

Rising sovereign yields raise the fiscal stakes

Higher borrowing costs are adding to fiscal pressures at a time of high debt, making credible consolidation more urgent, says the IMF

How worried should we be about the global economy?

Dambisa Moyo catalogues key risks, from high inflation and soaring debt to market concentration and political polarisation

When reality gets revised

Economic data are often revised. Sometimes the revisions change the story; sometimes they do not. Either way, Westpac's Luci Ellis says they argue for humility when using data in policy debates

The population grows 1.4% in the year to March 2026

The population grows fastest in WA, grows the most in Victoria

Difficult decisions today? or higher prices tomorrow?

AI has made borrowing more expensive. Alex Dryden explains how bond markets are changing

RBA hikes cash rate target to 4.6%.

Australia leads the fight against inflation with a new high 4.6% policy interest rate, among the highest in the world at present

'Air pocket'

Westpac sees the run into year-end shaping as a particularly nervy one for housing markets. They have increased their peak-to trough price decline

Superannuation drives growth in household wealth

Household wealth now at $19.4 tln, driven by superannuation, but now held back by recently falling housing values