Australian building approvals humongous surge …. but 'almost certainly a one-off'

Godzilla-like building permits data result in Australia, data out earlier:,

• Australia Building Approvals for February: 19.1% m/m (expected -1.8%)

A huge beat indeed, but as noted in the post, driven by a huge result for apartment permits and unlikely to persist.

Westpac's take:

Dwelling approvals jumped 19.1% in Feb driven by a big spike in high rise approvals. The spike is almost certaintly a one-off making the headline result a misleading 'rogue'.

• Indeed, approvals ex high rise look to have been significantly weaker than expected.
• … the headline rise should clearly be ignored - Australia's high rise building boom is not about to reignite any time soon - with the key takeaway instead the more disappointing momentum evident in non high rise approvals.

AUD had a pop, back near session lows now:

Waiting now on the RBA:

• Hey, hey its RBA day! Preview
• How will the AUD respond to the RBA announcement today? 3 scenarios.
• RBA monetary policy meeting - preview
• AUD traders heads up - preview of the RBA meeting on 2nd April 2019

Then on the budget:

• AUD traders - following the RBA meeting today we get the government budget

If you'd like a bigger pic view:

• RBA meeting today, but here's an outlook further ahead