Building permits data is volatile, but another poor result

Australia Building Approvals for August 2018 are down 9.4% m/m and down 13.6% y/y

  • expected 1.0% m/m and -2.5% y/y
  • priors -5.2% m/m and -5.6% y/y

Finance approvals for construction related projects have been on the weaker side, manifesting in a run of poor numbers for this building work pipeline data. Combine that with falling prices in the two huge markets here in Australia, Sydney and Melbourne, plus a load of projects under construction (i.e heaps of supply to enter the market) and tightening credit conditions, its hardly surprising the trend for this indicator is lower. ,

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For background on this: