The Goulburn Valley remains a strong and important economy for NAB within Victoria
Resilience and growth in regional areas have been a theme over the past 12 months. The NAB Horizons report is focused on Regional and Rural Australia and was published in June this year showing some of the below key trends.
42 per cent of regional businesses are prioritising investment in technology to increase efficiency.
Deposits held by our clients increased 8.2 per cent in 2024.
Regional property values rose greater than 5 per cent in the past 12 months, double their metropolitan counterparts.
Key industries in regional Victoria that are experiencing growth and utilising finance including Transport and Logistics, Business and Property Services, Construction and Agriculture. While clients’ survey comments support some of their variable input costs moderating, many clients still advise rising fixed costs remain a challenge within their business. In addition, those clients surveyed rated risk of scams, inflation and thirdly, taxes and government charges as ongoing business management issues.
Interest Rate outlook
While the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada cut interest rates recently, Australia’s inflation data remains resilient and NAB now see the RBA on hold at 3.6 per cent until May, (previously cuts in November and February).
The recent inflation detail shows that market services inflation is significantly hotter than previously expected and that it will take a period of modestly restrictive policy for inflation to settle at 2.5 per cent.
Consequently, we no longer see the RBA delivering 25bp cuts in November 2025 and February 2026. Our new profile for the cash rate sees policy on hold at 3.6 per cent for an extended period before a cut in May 2026.
The full reports and economic updates are available via nab.com.au/insights
