China-Australia relations thaw

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Tuesday’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 mostly about Australia today.</p><p>The Australian prime minister is in Beijing meeting with President Xi. Trade is the main topic, and that needs improved relations after a period of bilateral tension. These latest meetings bring a notable thaw, ahead of the US-China meetings at the upcoming APEC conference. Xi <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202311/07/WS65490f38a31090682a5ecbc5.html" target="_blank"><strong>said</strong></a> China's relationship with Australia is now on "the right path". Albanese <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-06/albanese-meets-with-xi-for-landmark-summit/103063854" target="_blank"><strong>pointed out</strong></a> that an improvement will be beneficial for both countries. But Australia is negotiating trade restriction rollbacks that should never have been imposed in the first place. However, Albanese invited Xi to Australia.</p><p>Back in Australia, <a href="https://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/find-a-document/statistics/insolvency-statistics/insolvency-statistics-current/" target="_blank"><strong>ASIC data</strong></a> for October shows company bankruptcies were -16% lower in October 2023 than the same month a year ago. But this is a rare bit of good news on this front because year on year these bankruptcies are running +38% higher.</p><p>The Melbourne Institute's <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/publications/macroeconomic-reports"><strong>Monthly Inflation Gauge</strong></a> fell -0.1% in October 2023 after a flat reading in September, showing declining prices for the first time in fourteen months and clouding the outlook for the RBA monetary policy. The annual growth rate also eased to 5.1% in October from 5.7% in September.</p><p>Later today the Reserve Bank of Australia delivers its monthly monetary