And in China, the economy is being affected by the authorities’ approach to COVID, major stresses in its property industry and drought in parts of the country. Some slowing in the global economy will help bring inflation down, but a sharp slowing would make the job of delivering a soft landing here in Australia much harder.
In addition, households own more than $ trillion in real estate assets, almost twice the amount they own in mutual funds and directly hold in stocks. Over the past two years, significant increases in the value of real estate assets have, for some households, mitigated stock market losses and supported consumption.