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AUD Wage Price Index q/q

📊 Q4 2024 Wage Price Index (Australia) – Released on February 18, 2025:
Quarterly Increase: 0.7% (below the forecast of 0.8%), marking the lowest increase since Q1 2022

Yearly Growth: 3.2% (down from 3.6% in Q3 2024)

Private Sector Growth: 3.3%

Public Sector Growth: 2.8%

This decrease in wage growth reflects reduced inflationary pressures, which could support the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that “risks to inflation and unemployment have skewed to the upside”. Powell said that tariffs so far are “significantly bigger-than-expected” and we will see “higher inflation and lower employment” if large increases in tariffs as announced are “sustained”.

Meanwhile, investors look for trade discussions between the US and China, which are scheduled for Saturday in Switzerland. The meeting of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer with their Chinese counterparts aims to de-escalate the trade war, not to negotiate a trade deal. Tariffs and counter-tariffs imposed by both nations on each other are very high, and a trade deal cannot be initiated without lowering them.

Any positive outcome from the US-China trade talks will be favorable for both the US and the Australian Dollar (AUD). Given that Australia is the leading trading partner of Beijing, an improvement in China’s economic outlook will strengthen the Aussie Dollar.