Australia Building Approvals Fall Short in September

• Australia Building Approvals Fall Short in September

Australian building approvals fell short of expectations in September, despite persistently low interest rates and demand for property.

Year-on-year approvals slipped 6.4 per cent, confounding expectations of a 2.1 per cent rise. They had risen 10.3 per cent in August, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, an upwardly revised figure from the 10.1 per cent originally stated. This was the first fall in three months.

Month-on-month, the series also disappointed with approvals falling 8.7 per cent, compared to the 3 per cent decline anticipated and the 1.8 per cent fall recorded in August. This was the biggest fall since last November.

Building approvals tend to be volatile month to month, although the number of months approvals have been in negative territory so far this year, when measured against the same figure a year earlier, does suggest a slight cooling of activity in 2016 compared to the previous two years.