Entries by Simon Wood

Interest Rate Update – May 2015

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced it will reduce the official cash rate by 0.25% to 2.00%, the lowest in recorded history. Following last month’s RBA decision to leave the cash rate on hold with a very “dovish” tone in their issued minutes the RBA has now decided to reduce the cash rate […]

Interest Rate Update – April 2015

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 2.25%. Following last month’s RBA decision to leave the cash rate as is “for the time being” it has again decided to await more financial data before it decides on further action to try to boost the domestic economy. […]

Cash Rate Update – December 2014

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 2.50%, marking the first full calendar year on record without adjustment. Australia’s economic outlook has not changed significantly over the past month and despite the slump in the dollar in November the TD Securities/Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge rose […]

Cash Rate Update – October 2014

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 2.50%. Since the RBA’s last meeting the domestic economy has seen a decline in the Australian dollar due to a continued reduction in commodity prices and strength in the US dollar. If the lower Australian dollar is sustained it […]

Cash Rate – No Change

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 2.50%. Most Economists are now forecasting this period of interest rate stability to continue until mid-2015, notwithstanding an improvement in business confidence, as measured by a recent Dun & Bradstreet survey of 800 businesses in Australia. 40% of the […]

Important changes to the Privacy Act

From 12th March 2014 significant reforms to privacy laws came into place under the Privacy Act. What are the changes and how will they affect you? As part of the reforms, you will be able to: Request access to your personal information held by an organisation (eg. a Lender) Request a correction to your personal […]

Depreciation for Motor Vehicles – Repeal expected

For business owners, this concession has provided an immediate deduction of $5,000 for any business related motor vehicle purchased. In a recent announcement the Government proposed to repeal this deduction, along with the mining tax and some other measures. If you are considering purchasing assets in order to obtain the accelerated tax benefits bear in […]

Building Approvals

Prepared by Bank of Melbourne The pace of growth in building approvals appears to have hit a speed bump with back-to-back declines over May and June. The annual rate of decline slipped to 13.0% in the year to June, but we expect approvals should return to positive growth in July. Weakness over the past two […]

Home loans on the rise are a positive sign of low interest rates

Home loan approvals surge in March “The biggest jump in home loan approvals in four years has all but confirmed the housing sector is recovering after a difficult couple of years” http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/breaking-news/home-loans-rose-52-in-march/story-fni0xqe3-1226641015083?utm_content=buffercb34b&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer