Moody's in its credit outlook released today

Headlines hitting the Bloomberg

  • Capex "numbers and accompanying projections for investment in the coming year signal a decline in investment in Australia despite historically low global and domestic interest rates
  • Unless the trend reverses, Australia's growth over the next two years will be lower than the 2.9% average of the past decade

Lower growth is credit negative ...

  • government tax revenues will grow more slowly, impeding efforts to stabilize government debt, which increased to 30.7% of GDP in 2014 from 9.7% in 2008
  • Could reduce foreign direct investment inflows, which would either exacerbate lower growth or increase the country's reliance on more volatile portfolio and debt capital to finance its current account deficit