Residential construction has made an important contribution to China's economic growth over recent decades. Given China's large population and the extensive use of steel in its urban residential development, this investment has also been an important driver of growing demand for Australia's...

China’s economy has expanded at a rapid pace over the past three decades, underpinned by a range of economic reforms. While many of these reforms have focused on the supply side of the economy, the authorities have employed a range of policies to manage aggregate demand and control the...

Labour mobility plays a role in allocating workers to suitable jobs and is important in helping the economy adjust to shocks and structural change. But there are also benefits from longer job tenure, and costs associated with workers changing jobs. This article presents some stylised facts about...

Retail goods are an important component of the consumption basket and changes in their prices have had a significant influence on CPI inflation over the past decade, particularly following movements in the exchange rate. To help understand the drivers of inflation for retail goods, this article...

In the medium to long run, the growth of real income depends largely on productivity growth. Australia’s trend productivity growth declined noticeably in the 2000s compared with the period of strong growth in the 1990s. However, the effect of the decline in productivity growth on per capita...

Since 2004, the RBA has been conducting a survey of how firms set prices, how frequently they review and change prices, and what factors influence these decisions. The results show that firms employ a range of approaches to price setting, with around half reviewing their prices at a regular...

This article discusses how bond, equity and foreign exchange markets have responded to the surprise component of Australian and US macroeconomic data announcements over the past decade. The bond and equity market responses are used to infer changes in market expectations for interest rates and...