Westpac-Melbourne Institute

: Adding to the government list of removing the carbon and mining taxes, and not going ahead with a Labor-proposed bank deposit levy, the parliament passed legislation on Wednesday that reversed a Labor law on inactive banks accounts, according to Nine News Australia. Labelled by the coalition as Labor "piggy bank tax" it returns the period of unclaimed money in accounts to seven years rather than three before it is automatically transferred to government coffers. The treasurer blamed the 5.6 per cent drop in the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index on recent downgrades to world economic growth and volatility in global financial markets, particularly in China."But I say this - our economic plan is the best friend of Australian consumers because we get rid of Labor taxes," Mr Hockey told parliament on Wednesday. However, Westpac chief economist Bill Evans also pointed to last week disappointing Australian economic growth figures for the drop in confidence. Other new figures on Wednesday will have been soothing to the central bank, with demand for mortgages rising just 0.3 per cent in July along with a further sign that leading to investors is cooling."It still early days but there are some tentative signs that some of the measures introduced by a number of banks to slow investor-related lending growth are having the desired impact," Commonwealth Bank of Australia economist Gareth Aird said. Reserve Bank deputy governor Philip Lowe agreed that for many in the community, the moderate pace of economic growth is slower than they have become used to."While this disappointment is understandable, we should not lose sight of the fact that our economy has shown considerable ability to adjust, and to do so in a way that has preserved both overall economic and financial stability," he told a conference in Melbourne. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.