Australia gets another major national IT crisis

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Monday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>And today we lead with news that on top of the Optus screwup, now the four larges ports in Australia are effectively shut down via a cyberattack.</p><p>But first up today, we should note that credit rating agency Moody's has held the US rating at Aaa, but <a href="https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-changes-outlook-on-United-States-ratings-to-negative-affirms-Rating-Action--PR_480815" target="_blank"><strong>changed</strong></a> the outlook to 'Negative' from 'Stable'. It has been 'Stable' since 2013. S&P has them at AA+ Stable. Fitch is also at AA+ Stable. Moody's expects federal interest payments relative to tax revenue and to GDP to rise to around 26% and 4.5% respectively by 2033, from 9.7% and 1.9% in 2022.</p><p>That is one way to start the week, a week that will feature the US CPI update for October, retail sales data and a number of Fed speakers. We'll also get US PPI, industrial production data and housing start numbers.</p><p>China will be in the limelight with updates on new yuan loans, industrial production, retail sales, and fixed asset investment. The week will also unveil Q3 GDP growth rates for Japan and a number of other countries. India will release CPI data, and Australia will provide updates on both Westpac Consumer Confidence and NAB Business Confidence.</p><p>Over the weekend the latest consumer sentiment survey for the US, the one by the University of Michigan, <a href="http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/" target="_blank"><strong>reported</strong></a> a sharpish retreat of sentiment in November from October. But to be fair it is still 6.5% higher than a year ago. Almost all the fall is in the 'current conditions' component. The future expectations component rose marginally. Of more concern is that the inflation expectations component rose somewhat to 4.4% for the year ahead.