Three Speed Economy

When I meet our private and business clients they often ask me for WHK's view of the economy. When I answer this, I choose to look through the "lens of our business". Why? Because we have clients of every age group, working in, or retired, from every industry sector, with local and international experience, and living in all parts of Victoria. This provides incredible insight and experience. What have we learned from working with all these clients?

We see a three speed economy emerging. First of these is the mining sector. It is very much booming, and our Perth and Nth Queensland businesses are inundated with work from this sector. Second is the corporate and middle market. Whilst media often report of profit warnings and downgrades, we are seeing strong levels of activity in this sector. Demand for our business services (Accounting, Advisory, Audit and Tax Consulting) here has been solid in the past 12 months.

Third is businesses with turnover of less than $2m. This sector faces more challenges than the other two. Access to funding, price pressures, lower demand for their products & services and online competition are all compounding efforts to grow. But, this large and important sector is very resilient, and we are partnering them in activities such as restructuring, cost reduction and improving productivity to help them through this tough spell.

I want to wish all our private and business clients a successful financial year. It has been a bumpy start and there is uncertainty ahead but with the right support and advice we can all have significant influence over our financial and business destiny.   

The Markets

The recent turbulent rise and falls in markets can make it seem difficult to find a little solace or inspiration in your investments currently. Unfortunately, some media are prone to write "rubbish" which only serves to agitate and disturb investors even further. There is a saying that "paper never refused ink", so we need to be evermore discerning about what we read these days. There will be considerable volatility for the foreseeable future driven by instability in the US and Europe and some emerging challenges locally.

Our Advisers have a consistent investment philosophy and strategic asset allocation approach aimed at delivering required return and income without taking unnecessary risk. In the current climate, it is very important to stay close to our Advisers. Every conversation with our Advisers should offer some potential and comfort to you. The conversation may tidy up an historic matter or lead to a new opportunity or start a planning process that will help you and your family down the track. And we should never forget that in every market there is always value to be found, provided we keep looking.