From the Wall Street Journal a more upbeat take on prospects for the Australian economy in light of yesterday’s much improved housing finance results:
- Australian home loan approvals up by 5.2% in March m/m compared to economist forecasts centering on +4.0% (more details here, and here)
The article sees further signs of the transition to non-resource extraction sectors of the economy:
Last week’s employment report showed unemployment rose Western Australia, ‘while remaining steady or falling in less mining-dominated parts of the country':
… unemployment has … declined this year in Victoria, a mainly manufacturing state, to 5.8% in April from 6.1% at the start of the year.
Meanwhile, in the country’s most populous state of New South Wales, a hub for financial services, the jobless rate has remained relatively steady, while the mix of industries in Queensland—including tourism, property and coal-mining—have kept the state’s jobless figure close to the national average, now 5.5%, over the past few months.
More at Australia’s Nonmining Economy Warms to Rate Cuts (The Wall Street Journal is often gated, so if you’re unable to access the article try a a Google news search using the headline)
