By Nick Brown

As the dust settled on New Year’s Eve pyrotechnics and partying, reality dawns with straitened times persisting for the nation.

More than a million people swarmed the main vantage points around Sydney Harbour for the city’s biggest-ever new year extravaganza as millions of dollars of fireworks went up in smoke.

Skies exploded with colour across Australia and revelry continued into the early hours, as a brief interruption to the cost-of-living crisis.

In his new year message, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said despite times still being tough the nation could head into 2025 optimistically with wages rising and inflation falling.

Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton urged Australians to “reignite our national confidence and our sense of hope” – by electing the Liberal-National coalition in 2025.

Here’s some of what Australians can, or not, look forward to in 2025:

ECONOMY

• The wait for mortgage relief drags on with the Commonwealth Bank and bond markets suggesting the Reserve Bank of Australia may start easing interest rates in February, while the other big four banks tip a May start

• Following some good news that more people have been finding employment, more than a million Australians will get an immediate new year bonus with welfare payments for young people, students, carers and others rising under indexation to keep up with inflation

• National home values may dip early in 2025, until mortgage rates start falling, according to CoreLogic

• The government’s books are projected to bleed red ink for the next 10 years, with economic growth remaining sluggish in 2025

INVESTMENT

• After gaining 7.5 per cent in 2024, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index is predicted by The Economy Forecast Agency to rise 12.4 per cent by the end of next year after going backwards in the first few months

• The agency predicts bitcoin to break through $US200,000 in a year’s time, having breached $US100,000 (about $A160,000) for the first time in 2024

POLITICS

• With a federal election due by May 17, bookmakers are tipping the coalition to win while the latest polls suggest a knife-edge outcome

• Australia anxiously waits to see if Donald Trump will disrupt the nation’s trade with new tariffs and the AUKUS defence arrangement after being sworn in as US president on January 20

WEATHER

• The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts warmer-than-average temperatures across the continent over the next three months and a wetter-than-average season for large parts of eastern, western and southern Australia.