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Westpac Regional Economic Report
Second Quarter 2008 Edition

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Highlights

  • The Australian dollar continues to rise against the US dollar to be 13% stronger over the last 12 months. And with weaker than expected growth manifesting a market pull back from the current aggressive expectations for rate rises in the US, cautionary forecasts suggest the Australian dollar could break through parity early in 2009.

  • The 'commodity supercycle' is a two-edged sword; farm input costs (like energy, fertilizer, freight) are outstripping the rise in commodity prices brought about largely by robust demand. Accordingly, ABARE is forecasting (20008/09) a 4% decline in farmers' terms of trade.

The report is available below in both PDF and RTF formats. Access previous issues in our archives.

Background information on this report can be found at the bottom of this page.

Regional Economic Report - PDFs


Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Executive summary (PDF 31kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Full report (PDF 752kb)

Sections


Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Australian dollar outlook (PDF 121kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Australian Interest Rates (PDF 52kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Wheat and oilseeds (PDF 96kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Base metals (PDF 84kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Sugar, cotton and wool (PDF 53kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Oil (PDF 96kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Beef and dairy (PDF 58kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Steel,_iron ore_and_coal (PDF 53kb)
Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF Forecasts (PDF 41kb)

Regional Economic Report - RTFs


Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Executive summary (RTF 11kb)
Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Full report (RTF 71kb)

Sections


Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Australian dollar outlook (RTF 12kb)
Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Australian Interest Rates (RTF 12kb)
Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Wheat and oilseeds (RTF 12kb)
Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Base metals (RTF 13kb)
Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Sugar, cotton and wool (RTF 12kb)
Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Oil (RTF 12kb)
Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Beef and dairy (RTF 12kb)
Microsoft Word Rich Text Format Steel,_iron ore_and_coal (RTF 22kb)

Background Information

Objective
  • To provide economic insight and forecasts into key industries focusing on commodity prices and financial indicators relevant to regional Australia, including an outlook on interest rates and the Australian dollar.
Author
  • The report is produced by Westpac. Its editor is Justin Smirk, Westpac Senior Agribusiness Economist.
Frequency
  • Quarterly
Data Source
  • Data is collected from various sources with all forecasts and commentary provided by Westpac's specialist economic team

 

 

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