Key View

Key View

• Australia scores 71.5 in Fitch Solutions’ bespoke Short-Term Political Risk index with its score in the sub-category of ‘Policy continuity’ at 77.5 down from 80.0 previously.
• The score change reflects our view that uncertainty around the federal elections and its outcome is on the rise as the polls draw closer.
• While an election

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• Telstra and Ericsson are to build Australia’s first private 5G network, to support the development of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) services, solutions and applications for the agribusiness sector.
• In the long term, widespread AgTech adoption – using multiple connectivity media - will improve productivity, lower costs and

Key View: Australia and New Zealand boast some of the most developed and dynamic meat and poultry sectors in the world, and demand from consumers in these nations remains elevated. Over the medium-to-longer term, however, we highlight three risks that have the potential to damage the meat demand outlook among Australia and New Zealand’s consumers

Key View

• Following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to maintain its current monetary policy settings in the final monetary board meeting of 2021 held on December 7, we continue to forecast that the central bank will raise the benchmark cash rate by 15bps in 2022 which will bring it up to 0.25% by the end of that year.
• We believe

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• Australia’s medical device market will record mid-single digit growth in local currency terms and US dollar terms over our forecast period.
• Patient aids will be the outperforming product category, recording high single-digit growth in local currency and US dollar terms.
• The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and continuing trade tensions

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• We at Fitch Solutions continue to expect Australia’s economy to grow by 4.2% in 2021 and by 3.5% in 2022.
• The economic recovery in 2021 was disrupted by a resurgence of Covid-19 cases at the beginning of Q321 - growth in that quarter slowed to 4.2% y-o-y compared to 9.6% in Q221 - the risk of such an interruption in growth still

Key View

• We forecast real household spending in Australia to grow by 3.6% y-o-y over 2022, to a total of AUD943.2bn (USD714.6bn).
• In September 2021 (latest data available), Australian's consumer confidence stood at 106.2, declining from the 10-year high of 118.8 in April 2021 amid rising Covid-19 cases and stringent lockdowns across cities

Key View

• Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has announced the launch of its Topo Chico hard seltzer in Australia, making it the third nation in the Asia Pacific region to offer the blend of low-calorie sparkling water infused with alcohol.
• We believe that the introduction of Coca-Cola’s hard seltzer in Australia and Singapore reflects the firm’s