In the local press here on the wages data out yesterday in Australia: Australia - Q2 Wage Price Index: 0.5% q/q (expected 0.5%)
- The wages of working Australians are going nowhere
- stalling at a record low
- earnings of more than 10 million private sector employees fall below the cost of living
- placing mounting pressure on household budgets
- The result also means the Turnbull government is now barely keeping up with its budget forecast of a 2 per cent wage rise, a figure it is banking on to return to surplus by 2020-21.
- It has fallen well short the 2.5 per cent rise it forecast for the year to June in the 2016 budget.
- The private sector's 0.4 per cent growth for the three months to March is the weakest result since the global financial crisis, with only healthcare and education workers recording a rise much above inflation.
Here is the report from the Sydney Morning Herald
While the report doesn't include this graphic, the writer has made it available ... "here are the budget's repeated wage projections, and reality"
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It's the "placing mounting pressure on household budgets" that is a concern for the Reserve Bank of Australia - consumer spending declines could weigh on economic growth.
