Aussie Weak Consumer Confidence Levels Up

As reported late this year, Australia's consumer confidence has surged down due to economic turmoil that affects the global economy. But the weak consumer confidence has not affected the general economic status of Australia. This May, the weak confidence rose to 2.7 per cent, its first increase since December. Would this mean that Australia economy already hurdles the economic blockages?

In annual terms, the consumer sentiment index fell 27.6 per cent in May in seasonally adjusted terms. In trend terms, the index was flat in May compared with April, contributing to a 26.3 per cent annual decline.

"May represents the first monthly increase in the index since December last year," Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said.

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Report: Debt Stress Hits Young Australians

Young Australians are directly affected with the alarming high interest rates, increasing food and other essential commodities' cost. They are, among the major fraction in Australia that directly affected by debt stress.



These young Australians, aged 35 years old below, are said to have been spending most of their income on essential commodities and other priorities, paying no more attention to their debts.


The increase in low-value debts being referred is very worrying. Defaulting on a $400 bill demonstrates that consumers are in very serious trouble or that they don’t fully understand the consequences of missing payments,” said Ms Christian.

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Banks Accounts vs. Credit Cards: Which is Costly?

Fact #1: The Reserve Bank of Australia claims that Australian householders are paying $4.4 billion bank fees.



Fact #2: The cost of bank accounts which is at $1.7 billion, is greater than the $1.1 billion in credit card fees.

Now, which costs your money most? bank accounts or credit cards?


The number of credit card accounts has risen by 30% and the value of cash advances has risen by 20%. However, no-frill credit cards, without frequent flyer points or reward schemes, had also become more popular.

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Aussie Housing Rules Changed

Not everybody knows that the housing loan market in Australia is kept on changing. What are those changes? Are these benefits the consumers? Find out why...

Observers say all lenders are tidying up their credit processes to varying degrees, with the most marked changes coming from smaller lenders, which now have difficulty raising funds on wholesale markets at a reasonable price due to the global credit crunch.

Among the changes, maximum loan-to-valuation ratios are coming down. In other words, people must now stump up a bigger deposit - harking back to the days when the rule of thumb was that potential borrowers had to turn up with a 20 per cent deposit.

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Aussie Gov't To Spend $38bn on Economy

What is good on the government of Australia is that it spends billions of money for its economic development, despite the fact, that it is already at its economic peak, as the government recently announced a $38 billion infrastructure funding to help boost its mining industries. The plan would surely make the Aussie stocks on the top as it was earlier recorded a three day stocks rise.

Budget documents prepared by the treasury showed Tuesday that growth is forecast to fall from 3.5 percent in the current fiscal year to 2.75 percent next year.

But prices for coal -- Australia's largest export -- and iron ore are tipped to rise on demand from Chinese and Indian industry, further stoking Australian inflation.

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Australian Housing Finance Slides More Than Expectations

More than the forecast of 1.0 percent seasonal fall, housing finance has fell to 6.1 percent for the month of March alone according to Australian Bureau of Statistics.

By volume, financing deals for the construction of dwellings dropped 4.6 percent to 4,594 and

financing deals for the purchase of new dwellings fell 11.5 percent to 1,981.

Financing deals for the purchase of established dwellings fell 6.0 percent to 52,796, the ABS said.

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Aussie Stocks Slightly Fall

The Australian stock market has recorded a bit lower on Monday, due to a weak lead from Wall Street. However, the low trend might be backed up by the strength of commodity prices.

This week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) housing finance data for March and the National Australia Bank Ltd business survey for April will be released on Monday.

The ABS labour price index data for March quarter is due out Wednesday.

On Thursday, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens addresses the Sydney University Faculty of Economics and Business dinner on The Australian Economy: Then and Now.

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