Unconventional Economist

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also Chief Economist and co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.

How is Australia’s energy transition really going?

The 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, released in July, revealed that: Oil consumption hit a record high.

Mortgage stress surges with worse to come

Roy Morgan’s latest mortgage stress survey shows that 32.3% of mortgage households were at risk of mortgage stress in August, with 22.7% extremely at risk: Mortgage stress was tracking at its highest levels since the peak of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in mid-2008, when the official cash rate hit 7%.

Aussie unemployment is set to jump

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock recently suggested that the unemployment rate may need to rise to 5%, up from 4.6% currently, to ease inflation pressures in Australia.

Australia has a housing conversion problem

The latest dwelling completions data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that only 173,400 homes were built in the year to March 2026, 66,600 (28%) fewer than the 240,000 annual run rate required to meet the National Housing Accord’s target of building 1.2 million homes over five years.

Bathla’s collapse an iceberg for private credit market

The private credit market, which has grown to around $200 billion in assets, has become a key lender to developers as traditional banks pull back from construction lending due to tightening risk appetites.

Poor rental affordability drives tenants into share housing

Cotality’s September housing market results are out: the nation’s rental market saw a solid rise in the vacancy rate to 2%, up from the record low of 1.5% recorded in February 2026 and the highest level since January 2025.

Property investors ‘crash out’ after federal budget tax changes

Aussie house prices falls are worse than thought

Just when you thought that Australia’s housing correction couldn’t get worse, Cotality has revised its dwelling values index downward, meaning that values have fallen more sharply than expected.

Aussie inflation print justifies RBA rate hike

In a classic scheduling error, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the August quarter consumer price inflation (CPI) report a day after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised the official cash rate by 0.25%.

Brace for a $1 trillion hit to household wealth

Australia ranks near the top in the world for household wealth.

Advertisement