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Bloomberg
Australian building approvals suffered the biggest annual back-to-back drop in almost a decade as a housing slump deepens.
Building permits fell 22.5 percent in December from a year earlier after plunging 33.5 percent in November, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed in Sydney on Monday. That’s the worst two-month result since January-February 2009, during the depths of the global financial crisis.
A separate private report from Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. showed job advertisements slid 3.7 percent in January from a year earlier, the first annual decline since April 2015.
The fall is significant because a healthy labor market is a key reason why the Reserve Bank is likely to stare down market pricing for an interest-rate cut. Policy makers see low unemployment as ensuring households can meet their financial commitments and as a signal of underlying strength in the economy.
The RBA has kept rates on hold at a record-low 1.5 percent since August 2016 and maintains the economy is weathering a reversal in property prices. Sydney’s housing market is down 12.3% from peak-to-trough — having soared in five years through mid-2017 in response to policy easing. The central bank expects low rates to keep tightening labor market and eventually drive faster wage growth and higher inflation.
The RBA holds its first policy meeting of the year; Governor Philip Lowe delivers a speech; and the central bank releases its quarterly update of forecasts for economic growth, inflation and unemployment.