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, March 2, 2011

GDP prints solid 0.7%--Treasury estimates rains took 0.4ppts off

A month or so ago some were talking about the risk of two negative GDP prints in Q4 and Q1. Today's real GDP was a solid, if not stellar, 0.7%, which was above expectations only last week, but in line with revised expectations given recent partial data over the past few days. Interestingly, in a press conference right now Treasurer Swan has revealed that Treasury believe that Q4 GDP would have been +1.1% were it not for the heavy rains in December.
at 12:49 PM