Bulletin

Economic conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) improved in the second half of 2020 and early 2021, although measures to contain the recent outbreaks of COVID-19 have affected firms in much of Australia. SMEs are being supported by policy measures, including a number of initiatives that continue to encourage…

Climate change affects banks because of the impact it has on the value of assets used as collateral for loans and the incomes borrowers use to repay their loans. There is significant uncertainty about the magnitude of risks to banks from climate change. This is because of the uncertainty about…

China, Japan and South Korea have all set targets to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by around the middle of this century. These three countries account for around two-thirds of Australia’s fossil fuel exports. Based on emission scenarios consistent with these commitments, we find that Australia’s coal exports could decline significantly…

Workers who lose a job tend to experience large and persistent earnings losses. On average, real earnings are around one-third lower in the year of job loss, and it takes at least four years for an individual’s annual earnings to recover. Earnings losses are particularly persistent following the loss of…

Governments in advanced economies have funded their large fiscal policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis by issuing government debt securities. Except for a period of dysfunction in the early months of the pandemic, government bond markets have functioned well. Despite the substantial increase in debt issuance, the interest rate paid…

The Chinese labour market has recovered quickly following the sharp economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. While widespread lockdown measures in early 2020 pushed large numbers of Chinese workers out of the labour market, successful containment of the virus allowed most of these workers to return relatively quickly. Structural…

China’s economic policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been less stimulatory than the response after the global financial crisis because Chinese authorities have sought to avoid fuelling risks in the financial system. Indeed, the authorities have continued with reforms to make the financial system more market-based so that it…

The Australian Government introduced significant fiscal support measures to limit the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and support economic recovery. In its capacity as the banker to the Commonwealth of Australia, and importantly as transactional banker to the large agencies charged with delivering a number of these measures,…

Our analysis finds that Australians generally do not have to travel far to reach their nearest cash access point – a location where they may make cash withdrawals and/or deposits. Around 95 per cent of people live within about 5 kilometres of a cash access point, broadly unchanged since 2017….

This article provides an initial assessment of the effect of the Reserve Bank’s bond purchase program on government bond yields. Overall, we estimate that the program has reduced longer-term Australian Government Security (AGS) yields by around 30 basis points and lowered the spread of state and territory bond yields to…