Australian Economy
Household spending rebound makes the RBA’s job harder
Household spending has risen strongly for three consecutive months, with discretionary expenditure now growing faster than spending on essentials.
Benchmark Analytics
Independent economic and financial services analysis
Original analysis of new Australian economic and financial-services data.
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Australian Economy
Labor’s investment boom survives a data-centre hangover
Private capital expenditure fell in June, but the headline masks strong annual growth, rising investment intentions and an extraordinary data-centre investment cycle.
The UK economy looks very weak
Australia and Britain face many of the same economic problems, but the latest data show Australia currently has the stronger economy — accompanied by a more difficult inflation problem.
Australian real GDP grew 2.5% over the year to the March quarter, compared with just 0.9% in Britain. Australia'
Australian mortality data
Dark stats - Key findings from the latest mortality data
The latest ABS data show a growing number of deaths as Australia ages, but declining underlying mortality rates across most major measures.
Australian Economy
Mining’s skills problem is unusually specialised
New ABS data shows that mining’s workforce problem is not simply a shortage of labour. Among mining businesses experiencing skill shortages, 77.3% say specialist skills or knowledge are required — the highest proportion of any industry.
Political Data Alerts
Know what the new data means.
Priority monitoring and rapid analysis of the releases that matter to government relations, corporate affairs and policy teams.
More analysis
Australia versus America: ten numbers that tell a different economic story
Australia and the United States currently have remarkably similar headline inflation and wage growth, but beneath those numbers the two economies are moving in quite different directions.
July consumer price inflation was 3.5% in Australia and 3.4% in the United States, while wages increased by exactly 3.2%
Banks
The strange death of Australia’s standard variable mortgage rate
RBA Table F5 is a monthly dataset of indicator lending rates. In plain English, that means it reports the headline rates lenders advertise across products such as small business lending, housing loans and credit cards. Within the mortgage series, two terms matter. A standard variable rate is the lender’s
Debit Cards
Australians make three debit card payments for every credit card payment
Australians make more than three debit-card payments for every credit-card payment, but international payment habits vary enormously.
BIS
Australia has fast payments — but other countries use them much more
Australians made 1.66 billion fast payments in 2024, but BIS data show usage per person remains well below several international leaders.
BIS
Australians make 768 cashless payments a year
New BIS data show Australians make more than two cashless payments per person every day, with cards accounting for three-quarters of transactions.
General Insurance
Home insurance premiums keep rising — but APRA data show no profit windfall
Home insurance is becoming increasingly expensive, but new APRA data show the householders insurance service result fell from a $1.15 billion profit to a small loss in 2025–26.
Life Insurance
Mental health claims are becoming a superannuation cost problem
Mental-health-related TPD claims are surging, placing pressure on insurance premiums inside superannuation and creating a new tension with retirement adequacy.
Private Health Insurance
Private health costs are rising — but insurer profits fell 16.6%
APRA data show private health insurance claims rose faster than premium revenue in 2025–26, while industry after-tax profit fell 16.6%.