14 Jul HOUSEHOLD SPENDING – UP AND DOWN; CEOs FEELING THE PINCH – SORT OF…
HOUSEHOLD SPENDING – UP AND DOWN
Spending by Australian households on “discretionary goods and services” dropped by 0.6 per cent last month compared to the previous year, according to figures released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Overall spending – discretionary and non – rose 3.3 per cent during the same period which while an increase, was the lowest growth rate since July 2021.
In other words, inflation, energy price rises and higher interest rates are taking a toll.
So, what type of spending dropped the most in May? Furnishing and household equipment (down 4.8 per cent), clothing and footwear (down 3.4 per cent), and recreation and culture (down 3.2 per cent).
CEOs FEELING THE PINCH – SORT OF…
While workers are pushing for higher wages, spare a thought for the CEOs running Australia’s biggest listed firms who’ve seen their pay packets drop to a nine-year low.
But before you reach for a tissue, their average pay packet was still a healthy $5.2 million in the 2022 financial year – or about 55 times more than what your average employee gets.
The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors’ annual survey of executive pay found CEOs working for foreign-owned companies listed on the ASX 200 had the fattest pay packets worth an average $11 million – nearly triple the $4.2 million paid to those running home-grown organisations.
And the fattest of the fat cats? ResMed’s Mick Farrell took home a whopping $47 million, while News Corp’s Robert Thompson collected $35 million. Not bad work if you can get it.
BYE-BYE BILL
After more than three decades as Westpac’s chief economist, Bill Evans is preparing to pack away his graphs and models in January as he takes a step back to take on a senior advisory role for the Big Four bank.
While providing economic forecasts for Westpac through the turmoil of trade wars, recessions, the global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Evans made an art form out of turning dry economic news into easy-to-understand media sound bites.
Looking back, Evans told the Australian Financial Review that the best forecast he ever made was in 2011 when he was the first to correctly predict the Reserve Bank would start cutting the cash rate at a time when most economists were forecasting interest rate rises.
HOLIDAY CAREER BOOST
If you’re one of the thousands of Aussie workers heading off for a mid-year break, it seems that holiday will be just as good for your career as it is for your physical and mental health.
Joanne Lipman, a former USA Today editor and author of the new book Next! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work, has spent three years researching innovation and creativity and discovered a clear trend – if you want to be more successful at work, take time off.
In an article penned for the Wall Street Journal, Lipman says that time off boosts work performance and your chances of promotion partly because it acts as “jet fuel” to supercharge creative thinking.
She also has a tip for the workaholics among us who are reluctant to take time off: start planning and start small. A few long weekends could be just what you need.
EARNINGS SEASON: WHAT TO EXPECT
With earnings season just around the corner, what can we expect as Australian listed companies open up their books one more time?
Our colleague Michelle Loh has put together a terrific guide to what is likely to happen next month, which you can read here.
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