LONDON (Reuters) – A growth spurt in the balance sheets of the world’s biggest central banks has crested in recent weeks, drawing warnings from investors that any signs of backpedaling on stimulus will jolt financial markets and strangle economic recovery. The... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will ease social distancing restrictions in a three-step process, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, as Canberra aims to remove most curbs by July and get nearly 1 million people back to work amid a decline in coronaviru... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will suffer its biggest economic contraction since the 1930s in the first half of this year due to containment measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, its central bank governor said on Tuesday. Describing the contraction as... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve and its global counterparts moved aggressively with sweeping emergency rate cuts and offers of cheap dollars to help combat the coronavirus pandemic that has jolted markets and paralyzed large parts of the world econ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s chief medical officer said on Monday it was no longer possible to completely prevent people with the coronavirus from entering the country, citing concerns about outbreaks in Japan and South Korea. Australia, one of the first cou... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s central bank would consider unconventional monetary options if the cash rate was cut to 0.5%, Deputy Governor Guy Debelle said on Tuesday, though he hoped such heavy policy adjustments would not be needed. Debelle said the Reserv... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares were a sea of red on Monday after strong U.S. job gains tempered expectations the Federal Reserve will deliver a large rate cut, while the Turkish lira hovered near two-week lows on worries about central bank independence. Share... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s central bank believes it will likely have to cut interest rates further from the current record low of 1.25% in order to push down unemployment and revive growth in wages and inflation. Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian businesses reported a decent increase in profits for the first three months of the year, supported by surging iron ore prices while higher wages and inventories may have also helped prop up momentum in the slowing economy. Data fr... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Surprisingly retained by Australians in a national election over the weekend, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s center-right government now needs to find a fast way out of a worrying slowdown in an economy that has been recession-free since 19... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s export earnings are booming as resource prices surge but a statistical quirk means tens of billions of dollars go missing from main measures of growth, making the economy seem weaker than it actually is. The cash is still coursin... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Millions of A$50 ($35) banknotes in Australia have an embarrassing typographical error that was overlooked by the country’s central bank before they were printed and circulated. The goof first became known on Thursday when a listener on radi... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Damaging revelations of widespread misconduct in Australia’s banking sector could hurt house price growth and household spending, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday in a fresh signal that rates will stay at record lows for some time.... More »
FILE PHOTO: A businessman walks past the Reserve Bank of Australia in Sydney February 4, 2014. Australia’s central bank on Tuesday marked a full year without changing interest rates, and many economists suspect rates could stay at record lows of 1.5 percent fo... More »
People walk past the Reserve Bank of Australia Building in Sydney’s central business district, May 5, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo Australia’s central bank held rates steady at its first policy meeting of the year on Tuesday, playing down a recent soft ... More »
SYDNEY Australian inflation likely braked to all-time lows in the second quarter, if analyst forecasts prove right, cementing the case for another cut in interest rates as early as next month. When underlying inflation slowed surprisingly sharply to a record l... More »
SYDNEY Australian retail sales were surprisingly muted in February, a red flag for hopes that consumer spending could offset global headwinds and keep the economy accelerating through the first half. Combined with a very subdued private-sector reading on infla... More »
SYDNEY Australian price pressures remained restrained last quarter as underlying inflation slowed to the very bottom of policy makers’ target range, offering the scope but not necessarily the trigger for a cut in interest rates. Key measures of underlying infl... More »
