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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (37148)	9/14/2005 3:12:49 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

During all the time I have worked for Fortune 500 companies, I have never seen much of a dividing line between business and government. It looks like one seamless structure to me. .

To: mishedlo who wrote (37148)	9/14/2005 3:13:28 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Respond to of 116555

Petrol hits Australian consumer confidence Sydney Morning Herald -- By Matt Wade -- September 15, 2005 smh.com.au Consumer confidence has crumbled in the face of record petrol prices. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell 13.3 per cent this month, the eighth-biggest monthly drop in its 31-year history, after pump prices hit about $1.40 a litre last week. The survey raised fears of a fall in savings and increase in debt levels, with 56 per cent of respondents saying they would dip into savings or use credit to meet higher fuel costs. Almost 40 per cent said they would cut other expenditure to pay for petrol. Households with incomes below $40,000 a year were most likely to cut back on other expenditure. Westpac's head of economics, Bill Evans, said Australians would pay $2.3 billion more this year for petrol than they did last year because of high oil prices. Higher bowser prices could cut 0.2 per cent from Australia's economic growth in the second half of 2005, Westpac calculates. In a bad sign for retailers, the survey's index of whether it was a good time to by a car fell 20 per cent to a 10-year low and the index measuring whether it was a good time time to buy household goods fell 12 per cent. A spokeswoman for the NSW Retailers Association said shoppers were cautious. Harvey Norman's finance director, John Skippen, said high petrol prices had made shoppers more sensitive to value. "If the price [of fuel] goes up it comes straight out of their pockets," he said. David Jones said it anticipated "negative sales growth" this quarter and that trading conditions would remain challenging for the rest of the year. The National Australia Bank's monthly business survey, out this week, showed retailing conditions lagged behind those in most other economic sectors last month and retailers' profit margins were under pressure. The consumer sentiment index fell from 115.7 in August to 100.3 in September, its lowest level for 2½ years, showing consumers were more pessimistic about the economy's prospects over the next year. Mr Evans said the drop was a warning signal for the economy. "If we were to see petrol prices continue to rise, more people would need to readjust their spending habits, because they can't keep running up debt given the level of debt they have got now," he said. The index on the state of family finances fell by 16.6 per cent and the outlook for family finances over the next year was down by 12.2 per cent. Falling consumer sentiment reduced the chances of an interest rate increase, he said. "Central banks take double-digit falls in consumer confidence very seriously," he said. Consumer sentiment has been volatile this year, with the latest drop following a 7.6 per cent rise in August, after a fall of 5.5 per cent in July in the wake of the London bombings. The latest survey coincided with media coverage of Hurricane Katrina in the US, which may also have dampened sentiment. .