Australia Financial News

China intensified efforts to stimulate the economy and support its currency, as investor concerns over the growth outlook persist. The central bank will trim the amount of foreign currency deposits banks are required to hold as reserves for the first time this year, the People’s Bank of China said Friday. The move came hours after authorities announced fresh stimulus for the beleaguered property sector and unveiled plans to expand tax breaks for child and parental care and education. The steps are the latest efforts to shore up confidence in the world’s second-largest economy, which is sagging under the weight of the persistent housing crisis, waning global demand and rising unemployment. Authorities have so far resorted to a drip-feed of targeted measures, avoiding the big-bang stimulus approach they deployed during the 2008 global financial crisis amid concerns over elevated debt levels. “The policy package exceeds market expectations,” said Zhaopeng Xing, senior China strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “Confidence will be boosted in the near term. We still need more evidence to confirm if it marks a turnaround.” Financial institutions will need to carry just 4% of their foreign exchange deposits in reserve starting Sept. 15, the PBOC said, compared to the current level of 6%.

NEW DELHI : India remains a “large opportunity" for Amazon.com Inc. globally with the e-commerce firm constantly unleashing investments in the market amid expectations that the nascent e-commerce market is only set to grow, said a top global executive at the Seattle-headquartered firm. “If you look at some of the big markers of opportunity, we certainly feel India is on the shortlist of the largest opportunities we have as a business.

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export control of dual-use items so that these do not fall into the hands of non-state actors and terrorists, Director General of Foreign Trade Santosh Sarangi said on Friday. Dual-use items are those which are used for civilian and non-civilian purposes. Speaking at the Indian Chamber of Commerce here, Sarangi said India is now a part of several multi-lateral groupings like Australia Group. «Enhanced export controls will ensure that these dual-use items do not fall into the hands of non-state actors and terrorists,» he said. Sarangi also said the DGFT prepares a special SCOMET (speciality chemicals, organisms, materials, equipment and technologies) list of dual-use items after inter-ministerial consultations. «We have a strict regime of export controls of dual-use items.

By Natalie Grover

Six months after becoming the chief executive officer at Shell PLC, Wael Sawan quietly ended the world’s biggest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets, the environmental projects designed to counteract the warming effects of CO2 emissions.

Backstage With Boria show. Interestingly, Ganguly predicts that this could be Rohit Sharma's last appearance in a 50-over World Cup.

The chairman and chief executive of Australia’s biggest smash repair chain, AMA Group, are leaving after a tumultuous period of pressure on earnings and the balance sheet.

Australia’s consumer watchdog has called for Qantas Airways to be punished with a record fine for allegedly selling tickets on thousands of flights that had already been canceled

The Florence tunnel boring machine stuck underground at the Snowy 2.0 construction project in NSW has made “bugger all” progress since it was commissioned in March last year, says Snowy Hydro chief executive Dennis Barnes, who is however hopeful the huge machine will resume its three-year tunnelling job again within weeks.

The Queensland government has been urged to dump its controversial coal royalty regime after a new report showed mining investment and jobs would plummet in the Sunshine State over the next five years.

Canadian uranium developer NexGen Energy has secured $US155 million ($240 million) in financing from investment house Washington H. Soul Pattinson and recourse sector investor Queens Road Capital.

Neil Pharaoh is a loyal Qantas Platinum frequent flyer who has flown with the airline since he was born. But he’s considering switching to Virgin after half his flights were cancelled or delayed in the past year.

Zimmerman has a new owner; so too does Seafolly. Bondi Sands was snapped up by a Japanese conglomerate for $450 million, and Aesop was sold for a record eight times that sum. Now the deal-making frenzy is pushing deeper into Australia’s consumer goods sector with smaller brands hoping to cash in on their businesses.

Spring has sprung, and so has a new buyout fund.

One is the guy who ran due diligence on Andrew Forrest and Fortescue Metals that pulled off one of Australia’s best deals, while the other is recently departed Federal Reserve vice chair and member of an influential family that helped developed a large chunk of the modern-day United States.

This is the first in a series of commentaries and analyses that former Wallaby captain Simon Poidevin will write for the Financial Reviewduring the Rugby World Cup in France.

Robert Bates, the founder of the Aquamamma and Aurum+ wellness empire, allegedly told his wealthy investors that “no one has ever lost money investing with me” and he would buy back their shares if companies that were part of the now-collapsed group failed to reach revenue targets.

A former boss of Australia’s competition regulator says big ASX-listed companies with too much market power have “taken advantage” of the sharp rise in inflation to aggressively lift prices which has led to a supercharging of profits.

Binance Australia General Manager Ben Rose says he’s “really confident” that Australian regulators will eventually make the right choices when it comes to laws that govern digital assets in the country. 

Oil prices were set to snap a two-week losing streak as they rose for a fourth consecutive session on Friday due to tightening supplies and expectations of the OPEC+ group of oil producers extending output cuts to the end of the year. Major benchmarks rose slightly in early Asian trade, with the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) up 7 cents, or 0.1%, at $83.70 a barrel, while Brent crude was also up 7 cents at $86.90/bbl as of 0107 GMT. Analysts expect Saudi Arabia to extend a voluntary oil production cut of 1 million barrels a day into October, adding to cuts by the Organization Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+. «We continue to expect cuts to be extended, with prices above US$90/bbl (on a sustained basis) required to draw OPEC supply back to market, as well as incentivize U.S.