Tim Colebatch
Banks put squeeze on housing
Tim Colebatch Australia's housing shortage has intensified, with bank lending to investors to build new housing in 2009 shrinking to the lowest share of new finance on record.
The economy is returning to normal, and so are rates
Tim Colebatch Let's cut the whingeing. Our economy is returning to normal, so interest rates are returning to normal. Who's got a problem with that?
Resource boom reality check
Tim Colebatch The government's specialist commodity forecaster, ABARE, has hosed down the Reserve Bank's bullish predictions of a resources boom, forecasting a falling dollar and, for many commodities, lower...
Boom times back as China keeps on growing
Tim Colebatch Insatiable demand from China and other Asian countries is about to put a booster rocket on Australia's economic growth, the Reserve Bank predicts.
Reserve warns of growing pains
Tim Colebatch Having survived the crisis, we must now control our expansion.
Rates to fight housing booms
Tim Colebatch Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens says the Reserve could raise interest rates in future to stop rising house prices developing into a boom and bust.
Tax on speculators urged
Tim Colebatch A former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank has urged the federal government to consider taxing short-term capital inflows to stop them destabilising Australia's economy.
Report fails to make the grade
Tim Colebatch Success creates its own problems. They're good problems to have. It's just that they require us to make changes, to stop success in one area from causing failure in others.
Economic recovery more a simmer than a boil
Tim Colebatch The RBA is forecasting a more or less normal year for Australia. Treasury is more wary, but positive.
Pause likely for interest rate rises
Tim Colebatch The Reserve Bank hints at a possible interest rates pause in February, as minutes of its December meeting reveal that its latest decision to raise rates was touch-and-go.
Housing boom spreads
Tim Colebatch and Marika Dobbin The housing recovery has finally gone national. Housing starts soared almost 10 per cent in the September quarter, as federal and state stimulus measures encouraged growth.
Confused by statistics? That figures
Tim Colebatch If the Bureau of Statistics can't make any sense of what is happening in the Australian economy, what hope have the rest of us got?
Long-term goals the big hurdle
Tim Colebatch The Copenhagen summit is missing a crucial element. How should we design a long-term agreement to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases? Negotiators focus on the medium term.
Scale of bribery 'staggering'
Tim Colebatch Two in every five business executives in a global survey say they have been asked to pay bribes when dealing with public officials, Transparency International reports.
The world is relying on the G20 leaders to find a way back to economic stability
Tim Colebatch The G20 leaders meet in Pittsburgh this week to debate a way out of the global financial crisis. That fact alone tells us how much this crisis has changed the world.
Plunging greenback clouds US optimism
Tim Colebatch, Canberra America's business economists have declared the recession over.
Our rate rise rattles global economic cage
Tim Colebatch Should we be proud? Australia's interest-rate rise moved global markets on Tuesday night, with even Wall Street feeling the tremors from the Reserve Bank's confidence that the recession was over.
Second rate rise tipped
Tim Colebatch Financial markets believe it is odds-on that the Reserve Bank will follow up yesterday's interest rate rise with a second rise on Melbourne Cup Day, after the bank declared the risk of recession over.
Economists urge banking shake-up
Tim Colebatch Three prominent economists have urged a shake-up of Australia's banking regulation system in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Reformer to bow out
Tim Colebatch Charlie McCreevy is a reformer destined never to carry out his reforms. His term as European Commissioner for the finance sector ends on Saturday, leaving a mass of reform plans for his successor to...
