We examine whether a single housing market exists across 16 cities covering two countries, Australia and New Zealand. Distances between almost all of these cities are vastly greater than commuting distances. For instance, Perth is over 2,000 kilometres (kms) from its nearest large city...

This 2009 Article IV Consultation highlights that following a prolonged expansion, reflecting sound macroeconomic policies and favorable terms of trade, global events have slowed Australia’s economic growth well below trend. The turmoil sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September...

The Australian government registered strong financial performance during the period under review. There was an increase in net worth owing to transactions, as measured by the net operating balance (NOB). These resources enabled the government to reduce its net liabilities and, to a lesser...

In 2000, Australia entered the tenth year of an impressive economic expansion characterized by strong productivity growth and low inflation. The Australian equity market performed better than most countries in the region in local currency terms, and spreads on long-term government bonds and on...

KEY ISSUES Context. With GDP growth below trend and the investment phase of the mining boom having passed its peak and beginning to decline, a key issue is how Australia can manage the mining-production/export phase and encourage broader-based growth. The main external risks include a slowdown...

Using data from Argentina, Australia, Colombia, El Salvador, Peru, and the United States, we identify three types of threshold effects when assessing the impact of economic activity on nonperforming loans (NPLs). For advanced financial systems showing low NPLs, there is an embedded...

This paper analyzes the factors driving house prices in Australia from a cross-country perspective using several approaches. It uses a cointegration technique to estimate the long-run equilibrium house prices in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada and assesses the extent of a possible...

This paper examines possible explanations for “winner–loser reversals” in the national stock market indices of 16 countries. There is no evidence that loser countries are riskier than winner countries either in terms of standard deviations, covariance with the world market or other risk...