One of the lessons from the global financial crisis is that systemic risk to the financial system can arise from outside the regular banking system, in so-called ‘shadow banking’. This article reviews post-crisis international and domestic trends in shadow banking, and regulatory efforts to...

The industrialisation of Asia – particularly China and India – has led to a strong increase in global demand for key resource commodities. The associated sharp rise in the prices of these commodities has underpinned a significant increase in the levels of Australia’s...

Domestic demand has grown rapidly in emerging Asia for much of the past 30 years. As a consequence, its contribution to annual global growth has gradually increased, rising from ¼ percentage point in the early 1980s to almost 1 percentage point in recent years. Most of this increased...

Despite strong growth in Chinese consumption, the household consumption ratio has fallen significantly. This reflects a fall in the share of national income that accrues to the household sector and a rise in the household saving ratio. Policies to encourage the growth of small and medium-sized...

As part of its liaison program, the Bank meets with community organisations to discuss the labour market and other opportunities and challenges faced by economically disadvantaged persons in Australia. The data available suggest that economic conditions faced by the disadvantaged generally...

Supply-side factors can affect the responsiveness of new dwelling construction to changes in housing demand. Recent reports and liaison with industry participants point to a range of supply-side rigidities in the Australian housing market, including the length and complexity of the planning...

The available data, while incomplete, suggest that for much of the past decade or so approvals granted for foreign investment in the residential sector have remained around 5–10 per cent of the value of dwelling turnover in Australia, and perhaps half that share of the total number of...

The Reserve Bank meets regularly with businesses and associations in every state and across industries of the Australian economy. The information collected under the liaison program complements that available from official sources and helps the Bank to monitor cyclical and structural...

Foreign investors’ demand for commercial buildings in Australia has been strong in the past few years, as captured by their rising share of transaction values. Foreigners have generally purchased established properties, although there has also been some interest in developing new...

Spending has grown strongly in the resource-rich states in recent years, primarily reflecting very high levels of investment in the mining industry. However, the pace of growth in state production and developments in other economic indicators have been more uniform across the states. This...