We finally get some of the important economic data from Australia - these two are for March, the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the country:
Tuesday 14 April - National Australia Bank Business Survey for March
- NAB business confidence and conditions are the two 'headline' numbers. February were -4 and 0 respectively
- both will have deteriorated (there is no survey of expectations done for these but I am confident they'll have dropped … this does not seem like an unreasonable call!) Social distancing measures began in the month: restrictions on movement, restrictions on businesses operating including shut downs of non-essential business. Panic buying began, which may provide a short-term boost to some of the sub-indexes.
Thursday 16 April - jobs data for March - Labour Market report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- Employment Change: K expected -30K, prior +26.7K
- Unemployment Rate: % expected 5.4%, prior 5.1%
- Full Time Employment Change: K prior was +6.7K
- Part Time Employment Change: K prior was +20K
- Participation Rate: % expected 65.9%, prior was 66.0%
- Hours worked and indications for underemployment will also be keenly watched in the months ahead.
March should bring the beginnings of the job losses due to COVID-19. The bigger, much bigger, impacts will come from April and into Q2 though.
Photo from the bushfires in Australia in early 2020. 2020 has only gotten worse since.
