Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Oceania

Jacinda Ardern to step down as New Zealand leader

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday made a shock announcement she had “no more in the tank” to continue leading the country and would step down no later than early February and not seek re-election. Ardern, holding back tears, said that it had been a tough five and a half years as prime minister and […]

Global oil demand to reach record high this year, IEA says

Global oil demand is forecast to hit an all-time high in 2023 as China relaxes its Covid restrictions, potentially pushing up prices in the second half of this year, according to the latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).  The IEA said global oil demand is set to rise by 1.9 million barrels per […]

Plenary have opened their second office in the UAE

Australian titan grows public-private partnerships in Gulf

Plenary Group, the Australia-based investor, developer and manager of public infrastructure with assets under management worth more than $45 billion, is expanding its Middle East operations and has projects in the UAE and Bahrain in its sights. The company has opened its second office in the UAE, in Dubai, just months after launching in Abu […]

Finger, Person, Hand

Australia central bank raises rates to 10-year high

Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised interest rates to a 10-year high and stuck with its projection that more hikes are needed, a stance taken as slightly hawkish by markets that were looking for signs of a pause in the near term. Wrapping up its last policy meeting this year, the Reserve Bank of Australia […]

New Zealand faces ‘shallow’ recession as rates need to rise

New Zealand is likely facing a “shallow” recession as interest rates need to rise further to tame inflation, a top central banker said on Monday, suggesting that a pause in the policy tightening streak was still a distant prospect. In an interview, Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) assistant governor Karen Silk said the central […]

Saudi Arabia plans to award over dozen mining exploration licences

Saudi Arabia plans to award over a dozen mining exploration licences to international investors as it looks to enter the mining sector in a big way to diversify away from hydrocarbons, mining minister Bandar Al-Khorayef said on Wednesday. Five new exploration sites are up for licensing and the kingdom will release details of an additional […]

Australia’s central bank says hikes could slow at some point

Australia’s central bank is set on raising interest rates again as it battles to contain red-hot inflation, but sees a case for slowing the pace of hikes as policy settings approached more normal levels. Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) September Board meeting out on Tuesday reiterated that policy was not on a […]

Tie, Accessories, Accessory

New Zealand wants rates above ‘neutral’ to tame inflation

Reserve Bank of New Zealand Deputy Governor Christian Hawkesby said on Monday that policymakers want rates to be “comfortably above neutral” to help lower core inflation. Hawkesby told Reuters in a phone interview the RBNZ had “certainly considered 25 or 75” basis point increases last week before ultimately deciding to raise the cash rate by […]

New Zealand aims to attract 12,000 overseas workers

New Zealand will make temporary changes to immigration rules, a minister said on Sunday, aiming to lure 12,000 workers over the next year with a working holiday scheme designed to fill labour gaps as businesses scramble to find staff. The jostling for workers is part of a global trend that has helped push up wages […]

City, Town, Urban

New Zealand central bank does not expect recession

Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Adrian Orr said on Wednesday that while growth would slow he did not expect a recession, adding that the central bank believed it was on top of inflation, which has hit three-decade highs. “Through our projection period ahead, while we do not forecast a recession … we do forecast […]

Water, Outdoors, Sea

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef coral at record level in some parts

Two-thirds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef showed the largest amount of coral cover in 36 years, but the reef remains vulnerable to increasingly frequent mass bleaching, an official long term monitoring programme reported on Thursday. The recovery in the central and northern stretches of the UNESCO world heritage-listed reef contrasted with the southern region, where […]

Metropolis, City, Urban

As New Zealand reopens, exodus worsens labour crunch

New Zealand’s easing of its strict border curbs has triggered a rush of new departures among locals seeking fresh opportunities abroad, adding further pressure to the country’s already tight employment market. A net 10,674 people left the country over the 12 months to May, according to government data released on Tuesday, extending a drain that […]

Crowd, Person, Human

Russia attends G20 meeting set to be dominated by Ukraine conflict

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has flown into Indonesia’s resort island of Bali for a meeting of G20 foreign ministers, which is set to be overshadowed by tensions triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The G20 gathering runs until Friday in host country Indonesia, which this year has grappled with the balancing act of running a […]

Sydney braces for more floods as thousands flee homes

Fresh evacuation orders were issued for thousands of Sydney residents on Monday after relentless rains flooded several suburbs in Australia’s largest city, with officials warning of more wild weather over the next 12 hours. An intense low-pressure system off Australia’s east coast is forecast to bring more heavy rain through Monday across the southern regions […]

Airplane, Aircraft, Vehicle

Biden administration supports potential F-16 jet sale to Turkey

The Biden administration threw its support on Wednesday behind the potential sale of US F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a day after Ankara lifted a veto of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden. Celeste Wallander, Assistant Secretary for Defense for International Security Affairs at Pentagon, told reporters on a call that strong Turkish defense capabilities […]

Volt Bank CEO Steve Weston

Volt, Australia’s first online-only bank, shuts down

Volt Bank Ltd, the first exclusively online bank to gain an Australian banking licence, said on Tuesday it would shut down, returning deposits and selling its mortgage book after failing to raise sufficient funds to support the business. Its collapse is a further blow to a business model that the Australian government and regulators promoted […]

Mobile Phone, Cell Phone, Phone

Samsung fined over ‘water-resistant’ smartphone ad

Australia’s competition regulator said on Thursday a court has ordered the local unit of Samsung Electronics to pay a penalty of A$14 million ($9.65 million) over misleading claims about a water-resistance feature in some of its smartphones. Samsung Australia admitted to misleading buyers of some of its ‘Galaxy’ phones about the water-resistance level, the Australian […]

Airplane, Aircraft, Transportation

Return of the superjumbo: A380 set for a dramatic comeback?

Two years ago, dozens of Airbus A380s set course for storage sites in rural France from the Gulf as the outbreak of COVID-19 accelerated the demise of the world’s largest jets. Now, the iconic European double-decker is gaining a new lease on life as airlines scramble to cope with rising demand and shortages of newer […]

Airplane, Aircraft, Vehicle

Air New Zealand ramps up capacity as demand recovers

Air New Zealand Ltd expects to reach 75 percent of its pre-COVID-19 international capacity and more than 100 percent of pre-pandemic domestic capacity by the end of 2022, as travel demand recovers, its Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran said on Monday. The New Zealand national carrier is operating at 50 percent of international and nearly […]

Formula One appoints Shaila-Ann Rao as new interim head

Shaila-Ann Rao, who was previously a special advisor to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, took over as interim head of Formula One at the governing FIA on Wednesday in place of departed Peter Bayer. The Paris-based FIA, which voted in Emirati Mohammed Ben Sulayem as president last December to succeed departing Frenchman Jean Todt, thanked […]