Market Economics Managing Director and keynote Speaker Stephen Koukoulas spoke with Bloomberg Markets Asia regarding the RBA and the inflation surge.  As a keynote speaker and panellist Stephen is often asked to discuss the economy with diverse audiences due to his ability to turn complex economic analysis into terms mere mortals can understand.  

Housing is a dominant issue for the Australian economy, and a dominant issue for most of us individuals - we love talking about house prices. Economist Stephen Koukoulas certainly knows about the housing cycle and provides insights on its impact on the Australian economy, your business, and your investments

Stephen Koukoulas dives into the heart of policy reforms and their application in closing pay gaps between men and women. He explores key economic issues such as superannuation, childcare, education and training.

There is a need for economic policies that increase pay rates and balance pay rates for roles filed by both men and women. Stephen Koukoulas also calls for the increase in superannuation, and the provision of childcare support.

Australia’s dismal vaccination rate is undermining what was a great scorecard for the economy that emerged over the first half of 2021.

Since the start of 2021, the economic news was stunningly good. Not only relative to the forecasts and expectations of all economists, but in absolute terms with the unemployment rate falling, wages growth picking up, the stock market and house prices hitting record highs and business conditions and consumer sentiment tracking at or near record highs.

It has been obvious for many months that the Morrison government’s dithering, missteps and errors in obtaining enough COVID-19 vaccinations, was a huge risk to the health of Australians and was a major risk to the economic outlook.

Few economists have both the global and local experience of Stephen Koukoulas. He is an economic thought leader in his role with his business, Market Economics. Stephen is often driving the debate on housing, consumer spending, investment strategies, interest rates and budget policy. This month we got his thoughts on economic sustainability.

The housing sector has, so far, been remarkably resilient in the wake of the recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. This appears to be linked to the mortgage repayment holidays, low-interest rates and JobKeeper.  Unless the economy can snap-back quickly in 2021, a resumption of the house price weakness could be just around the corner. What will this mean for you, your business and investment strategy?

The September labour force data show the impact of the recession on jobs, hours worked and unemployment. It is bad news. Depressing in many ways to realise that there are 937,400 Australians unemployed, a further 1,538,800 underemployed and that since the onset of Covid-19, the workforce participation rate has dropped by 1.3 percentage points as people have given up looking for work.

COVID-19 has sparked massive changes in banking and finance, not least because of the deep recession impacting the economy.

Among the changes that have been witnessed in finance, the so-called responsible lending laws have been relaxed to make it easier for a borrower to get a loan. In addition, around $35 billion has been withdrawn from superannuation accounts as the government has encouraged people to pull out cash from their superannuation savings to cover the costs of being unemployed or working fewer hours during the COVID-19 recession.

Economist Stephen Koukoulas says the economy needs money poured into private sector pockets so they can spend, invest and most importantly hire.

“So I would be looking at policies that make sure the economy is growing strongly enough so that in a reasonable amount of time we get that unemployment rate back to where it was pre-Covid,” Mr Koukoulas told Sky News.

August’s unemployment rate came in below expectations at 6.8 per cent, largely propped up by wage subsidy schemes which mask the actual rate. “It was only ten months ago that it was five per cent, it’s difficult and a lot depends on how the health crisis goes. “But for here and now it’s about jobs.”

Market Economics’ Stephen Koukoulas says immigration intake has “slowed to a trickle” and with it much of the demand for new houses and infrastructure.

Economist Stephen Koukoulas says “there is no confidence at all” in any projections about the unemployment rate amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Australian economist Stephen Koukoulas says the Reserve Bank of Australia’s emergency cash rate cut would help businesses and homeowners already “well off economically in this crisis”.

On a bad day for the markets and the economy, fund manager Roger Montgomery and independent economist Stephen Koukoulas speak to The Business, ABC News