From Greg McKenna:
There is a lot of focus on the wealth of Australians through property and super but many Australian households and Australian households in aggregate are still carrying a large amount of debt. A stock of debt which must be repaid with a flow of earnings no matter how wealthy they might be on paper.
So consumers are more confident about their finances and their financial future but they aren’t spending — yet.
Something that puzzles me is why household debt as a percentage of disposable income is constant. If consumers have accelerated their credit card and mortgage debt repayments, surely this figure should be falling.
Read more at Here's The Best Explanation Of Why Australian Consumers Are Happy With Their Finances But Aren't Spending | Business Insider.
I can’t answer your puzzle question, but I bet it has something to do with the fact that no one gets fired if the figures are wrong, or out of date. My limited time working fairly closely with financial gurus and accountants (but not economists – I never met one of those) showed me that it was quite normal for conclusions to be drawn and big decisions made based on dodgy numbers that few (if anyone) understood, and even fewer (or no one) could vouch for the veracity thereof. When an engineer makes a mistake, people usually die. When an accountant makes a mistake she just fixes it the following month. The incentive to get things right first time isn’t there.