Australian Economy

The latest insolvency data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) shows that 1,420 businesses in the hospitality industry became insolvent in the first seven months of 2024-25.

Deloitte Access Economics has released its latest Employment Forecasts, which noted that “the market sector workforce experienced modest employment growth in 2024 with most job growth very much sponsored by the public sector”. “The non-market sector (health care, education, and public admin) drove most of the growth in the past year.

On Thursday, I reported how the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) latest Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP) suggested that real per capita household disposable income may not recover back to its Q2 2022 peak until the early 2030s.

Gareth Aird and Stephen Wu, economists at CBA, published a report (presented below) explaining how the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) February Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP) lowered the neutral estimate of Australia’s cash rate to around 2.9%, down from its previous estimate of 3.5%.

Victoria has the nation’s largest per capita debt and the lowest credit rating.

Westpac with the note.

Deputy Opposition leader Sussan Ley claims the number of small businesses that employ people in Australia has fallen from around 953,000 to 922,000 since Labor won the federal election in May 2022.

Roy Morgan’s alternative and unadjusted unemployment number hit an eighteen-month high in January. In January 2025, Australian ‘real’ unemployment increased 78,000 to 1,620,000 (up 0.4% to 10.1% of the workforce) with more people looking for both part-time and full-time work.

Statistics New Zealand has released net migration data for December, which showed that annual net permanent and long-term (PLT) migration inflows fell to 27,000, the lowest level since December 2022 and well below 135,600 in October 2023.

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The financial woes of the Victorian government are well documented. The state had the nation’s highest per capita net debt in 2023-24 and the worst (AA) credit rating.

Last year, former federal Treasury official Stephen Anthony warned that Victoria might require a federal “bailout” due to soaring state debt, which reached $27,729 per person in 2023-24.

Dr Raffaele F.

Australia’s manufacturing sector is the smallest in the OECD as a share of the economy.

Credit reporting bureau CreditorWatch recently warned that nearly one out of every six (16.2%) hospitality businesses have a high probability of failing due to a combination of high interest rates, rising rents, high cost of living, and the pandemic hangover.

The Australian’s Matt Bell published an article on the nation’s “skills crisis”.