Australian households’ appetite for risk appears to have declined in recent years with households having actively shifted their portfolios away from riskier financial assets. The change in the composition of financial assets has been seen across most age and income groups. The shift in...

The Australian bond market functioned well during the financial crisis. Changes in investor sentiment and issuer behaviour led to a slowing in issuance and an increase in the average credit quality of new issuance. While the average bond term shortened and spreads widened, these trends have...

This paper examines the development of Australian corporate bond issuance since the early 20th century, based on a new unit-record dataset that we have compiled. Issuance trends have changed significantly over the past century as bond markets have become more diverse, sophisticated and globally...

This paper asks why Asia-Pacific residents issue debt in offshore markets and considers the implications for domestic debt markets. We use unit record data for bond issuance by non-government residents of Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Singapore to link the decision to issue offshore to...

Bonds are an important source of funding for Australian banks. While the financial crisis greatly affected capital markets, overall Australian banks retained good access to the bond market, with a sharp increase in the volume of bonds issued over the past couple of years. This reflected their...

An examination of the feasibility and appropriateness of establishing a direct, price-index target as the primary objective of U.S. monetary policy, with particular emphasis on the Swedish Riksbank's experiment with such an approach during the 1930s.

Australian financial and non-financial companies tap capital markets – particularly equity and bond markets – to source funds from households, foreign investors and domestic institutional investors. Foreign investors supply around half of these funds, with institutional investors...

Spending on durable goods tends to be more cyclical than spending on non-durable goods and services as it can be more readily postponed in times of economic weakness. During the recent global economic slowdown, the decline in durable goods spending was a key transmission mechanism of the...