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Articles from MacroBusiness

Rocketing electricity prices and the CPI

October 1, 2025 - 10:30 -- Admin

Following the release of the monthly CPI for August, headlines about skyrocketing electricity prices began to circulate, highlighting the 24.6% year-on-year increase in electricity costs. While that is certainly true as measured by the CPI, the reality is quite a bit more complicated, and the headline rise in power prices is going to worsen significantly

Manufacturers demand gas reservation

October 1, 2025 - 10:00 -- Admin

In the early 2010s, the federal Labor government made the disastrous decision to allow the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Queensland without forcing gas companies to first supply Australians. Gary Grey, the then-Federal Resources Minister under the Gillard/Rudd Labor governments, argued that domestic gas reserve policies create uncertainty and discourage investment. This pitted

Labor’s housing target collapses into dust

October 1, 2025 - 08:00 -- Admin

On Tuesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released dwelling approvals data for July, which showed 15,624 trend approvals for the month, down 1.0% from July. Approvals remained 4,376 (22%) behind the National Housing Accord’s five-year objective of 20,000 dwellings per month. In the year to August, 189,105 dwellings were approved for construction, which was

RBA holds on resurgent inflation risks

September 30, 2025 - 14:40 -- Admin

As expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has chosen to hold the official cash rate at 3.60%, in what was a unanimous decision. In arriving at its decision, the statement noted that “the decline in underlying inflation has slowed”, with “recent data, while partial and volatile, suggest[ing] that inflation in the September quarter may

Hastie’s path to power

September 30, 2025 - 13:00 -- Admin

When then Treasurer Scott Morrison came to the Prime Ministership in 2018, he did so as something of a compromise candidate. In the first leadership spill held on August 21, then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull defeated challenger Peter Dutton 48 votes to 35. This led to the now-infamous jab at Dutton that he was unable to

The Economics of Data Centres

September 30, 2025 - 12:00 -- Admin

The explosion of artificial intelligence has triggered one of the largest capital expenditure booms in history. Trillions of dollars are being poured into building and upgrading data centres, which now sit at the heart of the global economy. Understanding their underlying economics—cost structures, pressure points, and investment implications—is becoming essential for investors and policymakers alike.

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