January to March 2019 wages data from Australia
0.5 % q/q for a miss. Slow wage growth continues.
- expected 0.6% q/q, prior 0.5%
2.3 % y/y
- expected 2.3% y/y, prior 2.3%
Private sector wage growth 0.5%
- 0.4% in the public sector
I guess with inflation so low and falling real wages are higher. Plenty of folks are not on board with the veracity of the CPI data though. What with Mars bars getting smaller and what have you ;-)
The RBA have told us they are watching developments in the labour market for their futute interest rate decisions. Most have interpreted this as watching the unemployment rate. Fair enough. But the Bank will also being eyeing slow wage growth. Faster would be better for economic growth (which is below trend) and also helpful for the RBA's inflation target. Long story short, there is nothing in these figures that would make the RBA want to hike, they'll still lean dovish. Eyes now on tomorrow's jobs report (preview here) to see if there is anything to shake the RBA out of their steady as she goes attitude.
Oh, ps. AUD not doing a real lot on the data release. AUD/USD slid earlier and has retraced quite a good amount of that. Small range though.
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I posted previews of this earlier:
