Australia's commodity price index rose 0.6% on a monthly average basis in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) terms in July, reversing a 2.2% decline in June, according to a Tuesday report by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
The central bank said the index has increased 15.4% over the past year in SDR terms, with gains broadly based across rural commodities, bulk commodities and base metals, while the index has risen 7.5% in Australian dollar terms over the same period.
Most of Australia's capital cities recorded monthly housing price falls in July, with capital city housing prices declining 9.6% on a three-month annualized basis, ANZ Research said in a report on Tuesday.Sydney and Melbourne continue to look weakest, with prices down 1.4% month-over-month and 1.2% month-over-month, respectively. Over the year, Sydney and Melbourne housing prices have declined about 5%. Canberra housing prices fell by 1% month-over-month in July.Darwin was an outlier, with prices rising 0.8% month-over-month and 7.1% year-to-date.The pace of growth is expected to ease over the remainder of the year despite recent housing credit data continuing to hold up.Auction clearance rates have been below 50 for the last nine weeks, and current clearance rates are consistent with the housing price pulse falling about 10%, the report said.Housing credit growth was steady in June. The pace of growth eased to 1.8% quarter-over-quarter in the June quarter from 1.9% in the March quarter.Building approvals rose 7.2% month-over-month in June, driven by a 17.8% rise in private units/townhouses over the period. Approvals are expected to trend lower over the second half of the year as feasibility concerns limit demand.
Data shows consumer credit performance in New Zealand is continuing to improve, with consumer arrears falling to their lowest level since 2021 in June and residential mortgage arrears reaching their lowest point since December 2022, Centrix said in the July Credit Indicator report on Tuesday.The Reserve Bank of New Zealand raised the official cash rate to 2.5% earlier, its first increase in three years. The June-quarter Consumer Price Index showed annual inflation rose to 4.1%, with higher fuel, electricity, council rates, and housing-related costs among the main contributors.However, personal loan hardship rose 37% year over year and now makes up 24% of all hardship cases.Consumer credit demand is subdued, falling 7.3% year over year, with growth concentrated in mortgages, vehicle loans, and personal loans, rising about 11%, 8%, and 4.8%, respectively. Meanwhile, demand for credit cards; buy-now, pay-later; and retail energy fell sharply.New household lending fell 4.5% year over year during the June quarter. Approved new mortgage lending was down 5.6% over the same period.Business credit demand has softened and company closures and liquidations remain elevated. However, business defaults are declining and the average credit quality of new applicants improved, the report said.
Australian job ads rose in July with the ANZ-Indeed job ads increasing 0.8% month on month to 117.1 in seasonally adjusted terms following an upwardly revised 0.1% month-on-month decline in June, ANZ reported on Tuesday.The rise brings job ads 2.1% higher over the year, with the series remaining 16.2% above its 2010s average and holding steady despite the Reserve Bank's rate hiking cycle, according to ANZ economist Aaron Luk.The resilience in job ads aligns with a robust labor market, as June data revealed a 76,300 increase in employment, but some of this strength may reflect volatility linked with sample rotation.The Reserve Bank is expected to maintain interest rates at 4.35%, with a risk of a hike in November due to the trajectory of the monthly trimmed mean inflation, Luk said.The job ads growth in July was primarily driven by New South Wales, with contributions from Victoria and Queensland, offsetting some flat results in South Australia and Western Australia, according to Indeed senior economist Callam Pickering.