Australia: Wage growth slows – ANZ

Sandeep Kanihama FXStreet Contributor

Catherine Birch, senior economist at ANZ, notes that Australia’s wage price index (WPI) rose by 0.5% q/q in Q3 2019, slowing annual growth to 2.2%.

Key Quotes

“The WPI rose by 0.5% q/q and 2.2% y/y in Q3. The Q2 result was revised down from 0.6% q/q to 0.5% q/q.”

“The private sector maintained quarterly growth at 0.5%, but this wasn’t enough to prevent annual growth slipping to 2.2%, down from 2.4% in Q1. However, including bonuses, private sector wage growth jumped to 2.9% y/y. This effectively reversed the prior quarter’s fall, and we don’t think it points to an upward shift in wage outcomes.”

“Public sector wage growth dropped back to 0.5% q/q. This followed a very strong 0.8% q/q result in Q2, which was inflated by a significant, one-off increase for Victorian public sector nurses and midwives to achieve parity with New South Wales. Annual growth in public wages slowed to 2.5%.”

“Most industries saw annual wage growth slow in Q3, with the largest decline in other services (-0.4ppt). Transport (+0.2ppt) and professional services (+0.1ppt) were among the few that saw improvement. Annual wage growth in construction and retail was unchanged during the quarter.”

Author

Sandeep Kanihama

FXStreet Contributor

Sandeep Kanihama is an FX Editor and Analyst with FXstreet having principally focus area on Asia and European markets with commodity, currency and equities coverage. He is stationed in the Indian capital city of Delhi.

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