Latest Banking Statistics

APRA released the monthly December 2010 Banking Statistics on Monday.

Being aware of the growth in the Banks' balance sheets is important for the activity being generated in the Australian debt and deposit markets, and therefore early predictors in financial aggregates, such as GDP, and Budget taxation receipts as it relates to the deficit.

Loans to financial firms and non-financial firms both declined since the previous month, maintaining a trend where lending to business has declined over the year. Highlighting the de-leveraging in the business sector is the growth in bank deposits of that sector over the year of 17.2%.

Overall I think the numbers show an over reliance on Government deficit spending. The figures indicate that taxation revenue is unlikely to have increased, and the prospect of returning to a budget surplus in 2 years seems much less likely.

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Baby Boomers Are Retiring

CourierMail - 23rd January 2011: A LOOMING surge in baby boomer retirees may force superannuation funds to freeze assets and ban withdrawals unless minimum contributions rise from 9 to 15 per cent of wages and salaries.

There has been some press coverage that suggests that our Superannuation pool of savings will be run down due to the increasing number of Baby Boomers retiring who need to spend their savings to live.

I tried to examine the logic of this concept, other than an Industry wishing to pressure a Government to increase the size of the Industry.

By sourcing data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, I have been able to draw some analysis to get a clearing view of changes in population groups.

Over the next decade, in % growth terms, there is a disproportionate number of people entering retirement age.

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