Wed, 21st May 2025

In this episode of the Weekly Finance News Wrap, Paige Estritori discusses the recent shifts in Australian Investment landscape towards hedged international equity ETFs, with a 162% surge in global equity ETF inflows due to geopolitical tensions and Australian dollar volatility. Despite eased US-China tariffs, there is market anticipation of reduction in interest rate by Reserve Bank of Australia after their upcoming meeting. Australian housing market is soaring to historic highs, reaching a total value of $11.3 trillion with an average home value of a million dollars; this however impacts affordability and increases costs for renters. The episode concludes with highlighting an 8% drop in Australia's real per capita household disposable income since mid-2022 - the largest decrease observed globally - emphasizing the urge for Australia to improve productivity and trade terms to evade an economic downturn.