Australia's Central Bank Says Housing Market Risks Are Rising

Australia’s central bank will focus on the performance of the nation’s labor and housing markets in coming months in an economy it said grew moderately in early 2017.

In minutes of this month’s policy meeting released Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia noted labor market conditions were “somewhat weaker than had been expected” and measures of underemployment “remained high.” It met two weeks ago, missing a surge in full-time employment reported Thursday; that data also showed unemployment remained at a high 5.9 percent.