Australian low-cost carrier Bonza has gone into administration, a process similar to U.S. bankruptcy, after saying earlier on Tuesday that it was suspending flights amid discussions about the continuing viability of its business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A regulatory filing with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission said employees from accounting and advisory firm Hall Chadwick had been appointed as administrators.
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Australia plans to toughen its corporate merger rules amid regulators’ and public concerns that market concentration is restricting competition in key industries and adding to inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The reforms will strengthen and simplify Australia’s merger approval system, the federal government said Wednesday. It plans to give the competition watchdog additional powers to scrutinize all mergers above certain value and market-share thresholds.
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Bankruptcy Regulator Warns Vulnerable Australians Are Getting Caught Up in Rising Insolvency Figures
The country’s bankruptcy regulator has warned of the rising number of personal insolvencies affecting vulnerable Australians, as small business owners struggle to make ends meet due to mounting debts. Australian Financial Security Authority chief Tim Beresford said personal insolvency was “rising,” with rates increasing from about 10,000 last year, to 12,500 this year, and 15,000 next year. “The 10-year (annual) average is 23,000,” he told small business leaders at the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia national small business summit on Thursday.
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The Reserve Bank of Australia now feels that risks around the outlook for the economy are slightly more balanced than earlier in the year, while signaling that it isn’t ruling any policy options in or out for now, the Wall Street Journal reported. In minutes of its March 18-19 policy meeting published Tuesday, the interest-rate setting board of the RBA said that while there are ongoing risks to inflation and weak economic growth, they are largely even.
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In a sign of easing tensions between Australia and China, China said Thursday that it would lift the tariffs it placed on Australian wine more than three years ago, the New York Times reported. The tariffs, which were first imposed in 2020 amid a nasty diplomatic spat between Australia and China, had all but vaporized the country’s biggest overseas market, worth 1.2 billion Australian dollars or around $800 million at its peak. Australian winemakers faced desperate hardship and were stuck with a surfeit of big-bodied red wines.
Australia’s highly indebted households appear well-placed to continue riding out the pain of high interest rates and soaring living costs, with even the most vulnerable in a position to continue servicing mortgages, the Reserve Bank of Australia said Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In its latest report card on financial stability, the RBA said that while high inflation and interest rates have put pressure on household budgets over the past two years, nearly all borrowers continue to service their debts on schedule.
The Reserve Bank of Australia said Tuesday that it still can’t rule out the possibility that interest rates will need to be raised further, adding that inflation remains too high and is expected to remain elevated for some time yet, the Wall Street Journal reported. The RBA left its official cash rate on hold at 4.35% at its policy meeting. The decision was widely expected by economists. “While recent data indicate that inflation is easing, it remains high.
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The Australian government has announced it will abolish close to 500 “nuisance” tariffs from July 1, reducing the cost of importing everything from toothbrushes to roller coasters and bumper cars, the Wall Street Journal reported. Described by the center-left Labor government as the biggest unilateral tariff reform in at least two decades, removing the tariffs will cost the budget $19.9 million (30 million Australian dollars) in lost revenue annually, but help to streamline $5.6 billion (A$8.5 billion) in annual trade.
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Australia’s commodity-rich economy is on track for a soft landing, despite an alarming slowdown over the last year, supported by a household savings and an injection of pension funds as members of Generation X join baby boomers in retirement, according to the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock, the Wall Street Journal reported. Craig Vardy, a portfolio manager for BlackRock based in Sydney, told reporters at a briefing that with swarms now tapping their retirement funds, the pool of savings in the economy is rising and is acting to ward off a recession.
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Australian unemployment climbed to a two-year high at the opening of the year, highlighting the nation’s cooling labor market and sending the currency lower as traders brought forward bets on an interest-rate cut, Bloomberg News reported. The economy added just 500 roles in January, confounding expectations for a 25,000 gain and well shy of numbers needed to hold down the jobless rate, government data showed Thursday. Unemployment advanced to 4.1% from 3.9% while the participation rate was steady.
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