Nowcasting Key Australian Macroeconomic Variables

Abstract

Forecasts are relied upon as a guide to what future outcomes for the economy might be. However, it is also important to estimate what is happening in the economy now or has taken place in the recent past. This is where ‘nowcasts’ come in. In this article, I describe what nowcasting is, why it can be a useful tool for macroeconomists as well as present daily nowcasts of key Australian macroeconomic variables, including GDP growth, inflation and the unemployment rate.

How COVID changed the world of data

“…And in the September 2023 issue of the Australian Economic Review, a series of papers explored innovations in 'nowcasting'. Michael Anthonisz of the Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) uses data from Bloomberg and Macrobond, as well as the Citi Australian Data Change Index and the QTC-constructed Financial Conditions Index to provide daily insights into key indicators of the Australian economy including inflation, GDP growth and the unemployment rate (Anthonisz 2023).…”