Rate hikes weigh on spending
Aussie households are cutting spending hard, with a significant drop in the first quarter of 2023, according to CBA.
Government handouts have been wound back, and real wages growth has been negative, although older Aussies have seen an increase in their rental and investment incomes.
Source: CBA
The number of Aussies accessing hardship arrangements has also begun to rise again in early in 2023, as mortgage rates rise.
Source: CBA
With many fixed rate mortgages still due to reset from around 2 per cent mortgage rates to around 5½ per cent over the next six months, there's plenty more tightening to come.
This aligns with Westpac's rapidly deteriorating credit card tracker, and underscores that interest rates are in contractionary territory.
In related news, Commonwealth Bank set a message around to all employees this week requiring workers to spend at last 50 per cent of their working week in the office, according to The Australian.
---
VIC Budget
Having run Victoria's finances into the ground with absurd expenditure and waste over recent years, the state government launches into the ever-worsening rental crisis by...ratcheting up taxes on landlords.
You can't teach it...rents to the moon.
