19/11/2008 Note: Economy Journal of fACTs web page was changed. The reported decline in value (trend) for housing commitments in the ACT (June 2008) has been changed.

JOURNAL OF FACTS

Recent key releases during the last three months have included:

• labour force
• Consumer and House Price Indexes
• housing finance
• building approvals
• retail trade
• lending finance

Labour Force

Labour force for July 2008 - in trend terms the number of employed persons in the ACT was 192,300, unchanged from June 2008 and the number of unemployed was 5,200, a fall of 100 from June 2008. The trend unemployment rate remained at 2.7% between June and July 2008 and the participation rate also remained unchanged at 72.9%.

Nationally, the unemployment rate remained unchanged, in trend terms, between June and July 2008 (4.3%) The trend participation rate also remained unchanged (65.3%).


Consumer Price Index (CPI)

At the All groups level, the CPI for Canberra increased by 1.2% in the June quarter 2008, resulting in an annual increase of 4.4% for the year to April 2008. This compared to 1.5% and 4.5% respectively for the average of the eight capital cities.

The groups contributing most to the 1.2% CPI increase for Canberra over April quarter 2008 were Transportation, Financial and insurance services, Alcohol and tobacco and Health. Partially offsetting the increases in these groups were marginal declines in Recreation and Food.


Housing

Established house prices in Canberra decreased by 1.4% in the June quarter 2008 and increased by 7.2% annually. This compared with a decrease of 0.3% for the June quarter and an increase of 8.2% annually across the weighted average of eight capital cities. Established house prices in Adelaide rose the most in the year to June 2008 (16.2%) whilst prices in Perth decreased (-0.9%).

In trend terms, the number of housing commitments for owner occupation in the ACT, was 698 in June 2008. This was down on the number recorded in June 2007 (919). The value of these committments in June 2008 was approximately $174 million (trend), down $7 millon from May 2008.

In original terms, the average loan size (derived) for ACT owner occupiers was $262,000 in June 2008, up from $252,800 in May 2008, and down $4,000 from the high of $266,000 recorded in December 2007.

In trend terms, the number of dwelling units approved in the ACT, increased by 38 (17%) in June 2008 to 256, from 218 in May 2008.


Retail Trade

Retail turnover in the ACT for June 2008 was $383 million in trend terms. This was down $800,000 (0.2%) on May 2008 and up $5 million (1.3%) on June 2007. Comparatively, retail turnover decreased by less than 0.01% from May 2008 to June 2008 and increased by 3.7% between June 2007 and June 2008, for Australia as a whole.


Sources

Labour Force, Australia, July 2008 (cat. no. 6202.0)

Consumer Price Index, Australia, June 2008 (cat. no. 6401.0)

House Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities, June 2008 (cat. no. 6416.0)

Housing Finance, Australia, June 2008 (cat. no. 5609.0)

Building Approvals, Australia, June 2008 (cat. no. 8731.0)

Retail Trade, Australia, June 2008 (cat. no. 8501.0)

Lending Finance, Australia, June 2008 (cat. no. 5671.0)

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