Australian banks are likely to continue lowering their exposure to overseas funding markets, a senior member of Australia's central bank said today.
After relying largely on overseas markets to fund their operations in years past, Australian banks have been raising less of their wholesale funding from offshore than has matured over the past three or four years.
The total number of houses and apartments that started construction in the first quarter of 2011 rose 3.1% to a seasonally adjusted 39,578 from the fourth quarter of 2010.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics also said that the number of private-sector houses started in the first quarter fell 1.9% to 23,124 from the previous quarter.
The trend estimate for the total number of housing starts, which further smoothes the seasonally adjusted numbers, fell 1.9% to 38,570 from the fourth quarter.
An index of consumer sentiment fell 2.6% in June from May, marking the lowest reading in the index in two years.
The index fell to a reading of 101.2 points in June in seasonally adjusted terms from 103.9 points in May, compliers Westpac Banking Corp. and the Melbourne Institute said.
In annual terms, the consumer sentiment index fell 0.6% in June in seasonally adjusted terms. In trend terms, the index fell 0.9% in June compared with May, contributing to a 4.7% annual decline.
Latest ABS figures show that GDP, in seasonally adjusted volume terms, declined 1.2% in the March quarter 2011.
This is the largest quarterly fall in GDP since the March quarter 1991.
Flooding which began in late December 2010 combined with cyclones in both Queensland and Western Australian have had a significant impact on the March quarter activity.
Despite the fall in GDP volumes there was an increase of an increase of 0.3% in Real gross national income driven by an increase of 5.8% in the Terms of trade on the back of stronger commodity prices.
Sovereign European debt concerns re-emerged as an issue in May, pushing global markets into negative territory for the month.
The All Ordinaries Index fell 2.2% in May to close at 4,788.9 points. Global markets were all lower with the Dow Jones Index falling 1.9%, the FTSE falling 4.6%, the Hang Seng falling 0.2% and the Nikkei 225 falling 1.6%.
My analysis continues to point to a positive medium-term outlook for Australia. As a major exporter of commodities the global backdrop is supportive.
The economy shed jobs in April, surprising the market.
The number of employed fell 22,100 when the market was expecting a rise of 17,000 over the month, with a massive loss of 49,100 full-time jobs underscoring the surprising report.
Still, a silver lining was found in the unemployment rate, which remained at an as-expected seasonally adjusted 4.9% in April, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
Third-quarter profit and sales expectations among business leaders declined sharply in the past month, according to the Dun & Bradstreet National Business Expectations survey.
In its survey of 1,200 business owners and executives on their outlook for the three months to Sept 30, Dun & Bradstreet's profit index fell 15 points to a reading of -7 while sales expectations fell 9 points to 5, their lowest level in two years.
Also falling were employment expectations and capital expectations, which both dipped into negative territory.
While the Budget has been received as relatively restrained, some new measures were outlined which may impact how you manage your finances today as well as plan for your retirement.
The good news for families was that 'means testing' of the Child Care Rebate was not a feature of this year's budget.
National Australia Bank's monthly business survey showed conditions for firms fell slightly in April, though the index remained just off its highest level in a year, reached last month.
NAB's index of business conditions fell two points to an index reading of +7 points.
The bank's index of business confidence fell four points to +5 points. NAB's index for business profitability fell six points to an index reading of +4 points in April.
The total number of job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet rose 1.0% in seasonally adjusted terms in April from March, ANZ Bank said.
Over the year, total jobs ads were 20.5% higher. The number of Internet job advertisements rose 1.2% in the same period, contributing to an annual increase of 22.2% in seasonally adjusted terms.
Job advertisements in newspapers fell 3.4% over the month, and grew 6.1% over the year in seasonally adjusted terms.