**As seen in Risk In The Week report 04/07/23, subscribe at cablefxm.co.uk/reports
The Australian economy added 64.6K jobs in February, this was a rebound from the prior shedding of 11.5K and an upside surprise to the median survey of 50.0K. The unemployment rate proved the labour market resiliency as it dropped to 3.5% from the prior 3.7%, this was below estimates of 3.6%. The February report was led by a full-time employment rise of 75K, the headline comes to offset the last two monthly declines (-16.6K in December, -11.5K in January). Analysts at Westpac warned that despite the volatility, the jobs' growth underlying trend looks to be slowing down as the 3-mo average falls to +17K in February from +37K back in November. For March, Westpac stands north of the consensus at 25K as they note recent payrolls data point to upside risks. The report will bring further colour to the broad picture, the jobless rate remains close to a 50- year low, and it counters the recent progress in the inflation slowdown. Westpac holds their call for a 25bps RBA Cash Rate increase in May, while the desk at ANZ revised their call lower after the RBA April meeting, they see a terminal rate of 3.85% vs the prior 4.10%. ANZ's forecast of a rate hike in April was missed, they had seen another increase in May and now call the RBA delivering a last rate lift in August.
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