Shane Oliver ranked as Australia's highest-profile economist
AMP Capital’s Shane Oliver has emerged as the nation’s highest-profile economist.
A survey found he had more than twice as many media mentions across print and online news sites over the past year than any other economist.
Oliver had 2507 mentions in major print and online publications in 12 months, according to figures compiled by media monitoring provider Streem, who did not include radio and TV.
The tally included numerous references to his RBA cash rate forecasts.
Craig James, the chief economist at CBA’s stockbroking business CommSec, was the only economist from a major bank to make the top five of the list, according to the figures.
Dr Oliver’s tally, which works out to nearly seven news stories a day, was more than double that of James (1041).
The property-focused economist Nerida Conisbee, from REA Group, was third, having appeared in 959 media items over the year, as she moved to replace the gap vacated by Domain's Dr Andrew Wilson.
Dr Oliver, the chief economist is also head of investment strategy for the $187 billion AMP Capital fund. His contributions regularly appear on Property Observer.
The figures examined mentions of economists in metropolitan print and online news stories for the 12 months from April 2018 to March 2019.
Streem’s partnerships lead, Conal Hanna, said some economists were favoured by particular news outlets but Dr Oliver was “simply everywhere” with 2507 mentions over the past year.
Currently holidaying in Sydney, Chris Richardson, of Deloitte Access Economics, often a favourite of political journalists, came in fourth with 877 mentions.
The fifth most quoted was former Grattan Institute director Saul Eslake, the vice-chancellor’s fellow with the University of Tasmania.
Also on the top 10 list of economists are Alan Oster of NAB, Bill Evans of Westpac and David Plank of ANZ, The Australian reported.
The data had been restricted to people who were quoted in news stories as “economists”. The figures don’t include opinion page contributions.
Dr Oliver was among several market economists that had tipped the RBA to cut rates at today’s meeting.