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Australian Economy

RBA chills out as expected

Melbourne and Sydney has witnessed substantial property price falls in November as auction clearance rates took a tumble. According to CoreLogic RP Data, Melbourne property prices fell a sizeable 3.5 per cent in November, followed by Sydney notching up a 1.4 per cent decline for the month. Australia’s two largest

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Australian Housing

Banks continue to curb investor lending

As widely expected, Australia’s central bank decided today to leave the official cash rate unchanged at 2.0 per cent. In the statement following the policy decision, the Reserve Bank, as it has done over the past couple of months, reiterated “The Bank is working with other regulators to assess and

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Australian Economy

Adelaide property market “denied” jump start

According to Channel 10 Adelaide, The Reserve Bank of Australia has “denied” the Adelaide property market a much needed boost by leaving rates unchanged. You could be mistaken for thinking it was 1989 and the official cash rate was 17 per cent. But, no, the report aired yesterday after the

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Australian Economy

Australia’s banks on shaky ground: ABC, The Business

The ABC has tonight delivered its second instalment on Australia’s housing bubble, the brewing banking crisis and tomorrow night – what the regulators are doing to try to limit the catastrophic damage. You can watch tonight’s segment here – Is 1.6 trillion dollars in housing loans too hot too handle?

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Australian Economy

RBA holds off playing with fire

Today’s decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to leave interest rates unchanged is likely to indicate APRA’s crackdown on the banks (‘APRA to keep banking crackdown secret‘) has not been fully executed. Without these crucial measures in place, the central bank can’t take the risk of further fueling

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Australian Economy

APRA to keep banking crackdown secret

According to the ABC, Kevin Nixon, Former Managing Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) says foreigners are puzzled about the entire Australian housing market. Now a partner (risk) with Deloitte in Sydney, Nixon is a respected voice globally on regulation and governance of the financial

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Australian Economy

Housing bubble prevents vital rate cut

“Australia is vastly uncompetitive, I don’t think they want to openly say it, which is why they put a lot of fudge and nonsense in the minutes today” commented Michael Every, head of Asia-Pacific markets research at Rabobank after last month’s cut to the official cash rate. Michael Every is,

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Australian Economy

Woof – The watchdogs have a bark!

Hot on the release of the Murray report, the Australian banking regulator (APRA) and the Australian investment and security regulator (ASIC) has today exposed teeth as they start growling and barking at our reckless banks. Both regulators have launched an attack on prevalent risky residential mortgage lending practices, targeting in