Vehicle sales climb further in August
SYDNEY, AAP – Australia’s vehicle sales continued to climb in August as ongoing supply issues and the impact of lockdowns in NSW and Victoria were offset by booming demand elsewhere. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said vehicle sales surged 33.1 per cent in August from a year ago, with 81,199 new cars and trucks…
Review calls for payment system changes
CANBERRA, AAP – The way Australians pay for their goods at stores has seen a technological revolution in recent years with the introduction of payment methods such as digital wallets. But while this is providing increased convenience and opportunities, it is also giving rise to greater complexity and new risks. The federal government has released…
Oil prices soar: Sydney petrol prices hit record high
Oil prices soar: Sydney petrol prices hit record high Oil market update; Used car prices What happened? Last week, the Brent crude price jumped US$7.52 a barrel or 11.5 per cent to US$72.70 a barrel. And the US Nymex price added US$6.42 a barrel or 10.3 per cent to US$68.74 a barrel. It was the…
Bigger earnings on way at NextDC
SYDNEY, AAP – Data centre operator NextDC has forecast greater earnings this financial year and is building sites in Melbourne and Sydney for more customers. The ASX 100 company on Friday said underlying earnings would improve from $134.5 million in the past financial year to a range of between $160 million and $165 million. The…
Foreign minister defends climate ambition
CANBERRA, AAP – Australia believes in achieving net zero carbon emissions, preferably by 2050, not just talking about it, the foreign minister has told parliament. Many close allies, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, are urging more ambition on climate action to be pledged at the Glasgow talks in November The final…
Afterpay FY earnings down despite takeup
SYDNEY, AAP – Afterpay has posted lower full-year earnings after a Rebel Wilson-led advertising campaign proved costly. The pay-by-instalments provider on Wednesday revealed earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were down 13 per cent to $38.7 million. The decline was due to increased spending on staff and promotional efforts to gain more customers. These…
Banks on side with small firms loan scheme
CANBERRA, AAP – Australia’s big banks have been quick to jump on board an expanded federal loan scheme that will offer loans of up to $5 million for businesses with a turnover of less than $250 million. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced small and medium sized firms would no longer be required to have received JobKeeper…
ASX sorry for November outage after review
CANBERRA, AAP – The head of the Australian Securities Exchange has apologised for an outage in November that caused a day’s trading to be lost after a review found a new system was not ready to go live. The review overseen by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said…
SA close to ‘effective full employment’
ADELAIDE, AAP – Unemployment in South Australia has fallen to a 12-year low, putting it on the verge of “effective full employment” for the first time in a generation, the state government says. SA’s jobless rate in July came in at 4.7 per cent, just slightly higher than the national figure of 4.6 per cent,…
Mastercard to phase out magnetic strips
LONDON, PAA – Mastercard is phasing out the magnetic strip that has been the vital element of all credit and debit cards since the 1960s. The financial services giant says the strip is on the verge of becoming obsolete with merchants and consumers increasingly relying on chip technology to conduct transactions securely. Modern chip cards…
