News of a change of government for Australia drew a largely ho-hum response from local financial markets yesterday, but the new administration could herald changes "at the margin", says an economist.
As pre-election opinion polls suggested, Australia's centre-right Liberal/National Coalition won the election with a big swing away from the Kevin Rudd-led Labor Party.
HSBC said the decisive result would lift Australian business confidence in the coming months because it had removed at least some of the previous political uncertainty.
"The market implications of the change of government are minor, with neither of the major parties proposing to make a change of substance to the macroeconomic framework in Australia," HSBC said.
"Market implications are limited, with both major parties espousing similar macroeconomic views, and the election result largely as expected," the bank said in a commentary.