The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

UBS: Unit labour costs up +0.9%--Australia may have structural inflation problem

From UBS's Matt Johnson: "Structural inflation remained a worry in Q2 The RBA recently highlighted the weakness of productivity, and how this may have reduced potential growth. The recent increase in nominal non-farm unit labour costs has been a part of their argument. The Q2 GDP report showed a +0.9%q/q increase in this metric. The ongoing increase of this series suggests the flood-distorted +2.9%q/q in Q1 may have been more ‘signal’ and less ‘noise’ than previously thought. Wage pressure has yet to bleed into prices – the domestic demand deflator was a modest +0.5%q/q (1.9%y/y) – however this is a key risk to the inflation outlook."