Even though there are a lot of anecdotes that the housing market is bouncing back, these numbers will cool that down a little bit. |
It seems that heavy discounting succeeded in clearing unwanted inventory, but only in some areas of retailing and at the expense of retailers' profit margins. |
Parts of the economy are still doing well, with mining booming and that's generating jobs. I do think that employment growth will slow this year and that will be enough to keep the central bank on the sidelines. |
The fall in employment is a good indicator that things are pretty tough. The economy faces some stiff headwinds from the central bank's interest-rate increases and that's going to be showing up in the employment market, the housing market and consumer spending. |
The fall in retail sector profits reflects the inability of many retailers to pass on cost increases in an environment of weak consumer spending. |
There's good evidence that economic momentum globally is picking up and that's typically positive for commodities and the Australian dollar. |