Key View:

• Growth of Australia’s transport sector will be predominantly driven by the road and rail sectors, supported by the government’s 10-Year Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP).
• The Roads and Bridges sector will be the largest component of the overall transport sector. Although many projects will be supported by federal and state funding

Key View:

• The re-election of Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the May federal election is likely to see status quo maintained with regards to energy policies at the federal level.
• PM Morrison’s primary focus will be combating high domestic gas prices in Australia, to reduce the cost burden on consumers and businesses.
• Greater

With interest rates to be kept on hold for the duration of 2019 in Australia, the market for kangaroo bonds is set to benefit from increased interest from debt issuers and investors in the near-term. In addition, over the medium to long-term we see plenty of upside for debt issuers in the Australian market by overseas companies but denominated in

Key View

• The Australian Treasurer announced the FY2019/20 federal budget on April 2 2019, and we believe that the government’s announced measures suggest that it is looking to shore up voter support ahead of the 2019 elections. 
• Key highlights of the budget include higher spending on healthcare, education, and transport infrastructure.
• The

After a strong year for activity in the Australia private equity arena last year, we expect to see spending in the asset class to continue at a rapid pace once more across the course of 2019. Pointing to bumper activity levels during the first two months of the year as an indicator of what is to come, we forecast investment activity in PE to

Key View

• Australia’s real GDP growth slowed significantly to 2.8% y-o-y in Q318, from 3.4% y-o-y in Q218, due to easing growth in gross fixed capital formation and private consumption.

• We at Fitch Solutions maintain our forecast for growth to slow to 2.5% in 2019, from 3.0% in 2018, as we expect a further slowdown in private investment

Key View

• Atomo Diagnostics' HIV self-tests could prevent the progression of HIV to AIDS in the long-term, due to the increased accessibility and ease of use of the test.
• Atomo Diagnostics and Mylan's collaborative work will help the companies to reach a wider market in developing countries.
• After detection of HIV/AIDS from Atomo's self-test

Key View

• We believe that the risk of snap elections in Australia has risen following the ousting and subsequent resignation of ex-PM Malcolm Turnbull on August 24.
• Despite support for the government trailing behind the main opposition Australian Labor Party, personality politics could still see the Liberal-National coalition turn around its

Key View

• Santos' decision to acquire Quadrant Energy for USD2.15bn will significantly bolster its upstream position in Australia, in line with its strategy to priortise growth at home.
• The deal expands Santos' growth options in the domestic LNG space, where cost-competitive brownfield expansions are increasingly being preferred by major

Key View: We believe that the ongoing slump in Australian house prices does not bode well for the outlook for the banking sector over the coming quarters as credit growth weakens. This will be compounded by the low interest rate environment and increased oversight by regulators.

We are maintaining our long-held view that the outlook for Australian