Friday, November 06, 2009

Six easy graphs - the story of the Australian economy

From today's RBA Quarterly Statement.

Enjoy.







3 comments:

carbonsink said...

Four of these graphs are profoundly depressing

- Population Growth
- Change in US Dollar
- Departures vs Arrivals
- Mining Investment

They all point an overcrowded Australia that does nothing but dig up rocks and spends the proceeds overseas.

I'm not going to enjoy that. Will you?

KitchenSlut said...

But do you have any alternative policy proposals Carbonsink?

Meanwhile from my Cairns based perspective I can only make the following observations on arrivals / departures .....

1) Both arrivals and departures during the GFC have been much more resilient than in recent past shocks such as 9/11, the Asia crisis, the mild early noughties US recession, Iraq, internet bubble collapse and 2003 bear market.

2) The trend turnaround between arrivals and departures, along with other graphs posted, correlate with other key trends such as currency, commodities and terms of trade related to China and emerging economies etc etc. Although any small impact from boosted immigration arrivals doesn't show up in the arrivals.

3) International arrivals were stalling long BEFORE the GFC!


Note here that the international arrivals for Cairns in the more recent past, as far as I am aware, show a far more severe downturn (ex transits) than apparent in arrivals nationally. Some events very specific to Cairns have impacted locally to drive regional unemployment to the highest nationally.

carbonsink said...

3) The AUD was super strong leading up to the GFC