Soft wages hit Australian dollar

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The wage price index is out and missed consensus for 0.6% March quarter growth at 0.5%. Year on year was on target at 2.1%:

TOTAL HOURLY RATES OF PAY EXCLUDING BONUSES

QUARTERLY CHANGE (DEC QTR 2017 TO MAR QTR 2018)

  • The trend and seasonally adjusted indexes for Australia both rose 0.5% in the March quarter 2018. This continued the moderate rate of wage growth recorded by the series over the last two years.
  • The Private and Public sector both rose 0.5%, seasonally adjusted.
  • The largest rise in indexes at an industry level (in original terms) was recorded in the Education and training industry (0.8%). A number of industries recorded the same lowest rate of wage growth, 0.2%.

ANNUAL CHANGE (MAR QTR 2017 TO MAR QTR 2018)

  • The trend and seasonally adjusted indexes for Australia both rose 2.1% through the year to the March quarter 2018. This continues the rate of wage growth recorded in the December 2017 quarter.
  • Rises through the year to March quarter 2018 at the industry level (in the original indexes) ranged from 1.4% for Mining to 2.7% for Health care and social assistance.

Going nowhere fast. The Aussie dollar took it poorly:

More to come…

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.