Justin Smirk
Senior Economist
Westpac Banking Corporation

Justin Smirk, Senior Economist, joined Westpac's Economic Research team in 1999. He is the Bank's spokesperson on commodities, the US economy plus regional and agribusiness issues. He is also the bank’s key researcher on monetary policy. Prior to joining Westpac Justin was an economist in the Economic Analysis section of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Justin specialises in the economics and financial markets of the Asia-Pacific, with particular emphasis on the economic performance of the US and Australia's major trading partners. He also canvasses issues related to the longer-run macroeconomic fundamentals of the commodity markets with a particular focus on world growth, international trade, emerging markets, urbanisation and industrialisation, growth and productivity. He is also a key member of Westpac’s Australian dollar forecasting team while maintaining a close eye on developments in the rural sector and its impact on the Australian economy. Justin’s major ongoing research project is to define the macroeconomic fundamentals for the short-run cyclical demand for commodities and overlay this relationship with the longer-run structural changes in demand associated with the industrialization of Asia.

His work on the US economy has focused on housing affordability, household wealth/debt &
consumption and, corporate financial health & employment. He has also researched the impact of currency volatility on Australia’s inflation and growth outlook. Justin is a leading figure in the Westpac’s central bank forecasting process, including the maintenance of Westpac's proprietary inflation models and the central bank "reaction functions" for the Reserve Bank of Australia and the US Federal Reserve. He is a major contributor to Westpac's monthly Market Outlook Report and editor of Westpac’s quarterly Commodities Outlook report and the regional
Economic Report.

Justin is affiliated with the Economic Society of Australia and the Australian Business economists.