Recent News

AAA Credit Rating Stable for Australia
Standard & Poor's have confirmed Australia's AAA credit rating is stable. All term deposits up to $1M with any eligible ADI (Banks, Building Societies, Credit Unions) are guaranteed by the Australian Government until Oct 2011 so their implied AAA status is affirmed.

ANZ Job Ads
The August report showed a rise of 2.6%, up a little from 1.4% in July with a rise in internet ads (up 2.6% after 1.4%) and newspaper ads, rising 1.5% after +1.4% after having fallen for three months. This points to continued solid annual growth in employment.

Employment figures to be released Thursday are expected to show around 35k more employed (including an extra 5k due to the election) with a rate of 5.2%

TD-Melbourne Institute CPI
The monthly TD-MI CPI gauge for August released yesterday remains
benign. The headline monthly CPI rose 0.2%/3.0% after +0.1%/2.8% in July with rises in alcohol and tobacco (seasonal), fruit and vegetables, and
furniture partly offset by falls in meat and seafood, holiday, and fuel
prices. The trimmed mean CPI measure was flat in August after rising just
0.1% in July. This measure points to an even softer reading on underlying
inflation in Q3, (0.3% for the quarter).

RBA
Expected to remain on hold today.