The Article IV Consultation discusses that recently a commodity price boom, driven by robust global demand, has pushed the Australian economy up against capacity constraints. Banks are adjusting the structure of their funding in response to the turmoil, increasing liquidity, and lengthening the...

This Selected Issues paper on Australia highlights the IMF’s new Global Integrated Monetary and Fiscal Model (GIMF), which is used to examine the macroeconomic implications of alternative fiscal responses to higher revenue. Lower labor and capital income taxes, along with higher public...

This paper reviews developments in the Australian economy during the prolonged expansion of the 1990s. The focus is on developments in the real sector, public finances, monetary policy, and the balance of payments during 1996–97. The paper reviews longer-term developments in the labor market...

This paper reviews Australian banks’ performance from an international perspective, with a focus on changes in capital and liquidity risk. The paper analyses the extent of any vulnerability that might arise from a potential deterioration in the funding markets and discusses whether liquidity...

This paper examines the size and source of external spillovers to Australia and New Zealand based on a structural vector autoregression (VAR) approach. It finds that during the last decade shocks from emerging Asia have become more important than those from the United States in affecting...

Australia’s four largest banks can be considered domestically systemic. They make up the lion’s share of the banking system, use similar business models, and are interconnected. The top four banks are relatively similar in terms of systemic importance, partly reflecting the authorities’...

The insurance industry in Australia has weathered the global financial crisis well and was resilient to the catastrophic events in 2010/11. The insurance industry is mature but relatively small compared to the banking sector. Assets held by insurers represented only about 8 percent of the...

Australia has a very high level of compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision (BCPs). The Australian banking system was more sheltered than a number of other countries and weathered the Global Financial Crisis relatively well. This was in part due to relative...

The Australian legal and regulatory framework for securities markets exhibits a high level of compliance with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Principles. A few remaining concerns need to be resolved, including some identified in the 2006 assessment. Australian...

The main objective of the assessment was to analyze and observe the implementation of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Principles in Australia. The various responsibilities of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) were highlighted and the...