Australia: Q4 wages were marginally higher than expected - Rabobank

Analysts at Rabobank note that Australia’s Q4 wages data were marginally higher than expected at 0.6% q-o-q (0.5% consensus) and 2.1% y-o-y (2.0% consensus).

Key Quotes

“For some reason the AUD took that as a genuine positive signal, even though the shocking trade data recently did not hit lower. Talk about picking and choosing. But back in the real world, what we basically have is a wages report just a smidge higher than what would have been a repeat of a near record-low y-o-y print indicating ZERO real-terms wage pressure.”

“Five years ago we were seeing wages growth of over 3.5% y-o-y with an economy that looked pretty-much the same on most fronts. In short, a wages explosion it certainly isn’t, and I’d wager anyone thinking that number will be changing the beach-casual attitude of the RBA has towards inflation right now has too much time (or liquidity) on their hands.”