Australia's central bank welcomes Q2 inflation data, deputy governor says
At the Barrenjoey Economic Forum in Sydney, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser reiterated the central bank's gradual and measured approach to lowering interest rates.
Data showed on Wednesday that consumer prices grew at the slowest pace in over four years in the June quarter, while core inflation hit a fresh three-year low and cemented market wagers for a cut in interest rates next month.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Chinese government lashes Australia's spy boss over warnings
China has accused Australian spies of operating in its country after the top Aussie spy boss accused Chinese spies of doing the same thing down under. China's Ministry of State Security hit back against ASIO director-general Mike Burgess' claim that Chinese citizens were spying in Australia. The statement was released by the Foreign Ministry's official WeChat account and accused Australian intelligence agencies of making groundless accusations. In July, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited China in an attempt to normalise relations with Beijing after several tense years. However, a speech by Mr Burgess on July 31, in which he named China among the top three countries engaged in espionage against Australia, unsettled relations once more." Mr Burgess said ASIO had disrupted 24 'major espionage and foreign interference' operations within the last three years alone. 'Nation states are spying at unprecedented levels, with unprecedented sophistication,' he said. 'ASIO is seeing more Australians targeted – more aggressively – than ever before.' China's Ministry of State Security accused Australia of painting itself as the 'victim' while its spies operated within the country. 'Australian intelligence agencies advocated the "serious threat" posed by foreign espionage activities to Australia, and even packaged themselves as innocent "victims" in groundless accusations of "Chinese espionage threat",' the ministry said. 'In recent years, China's state security organs have successively cracked a number of espionage cases against China instigated by Australian intelligence agencies in accordance with the law, effectively safeguarding China's sovereignty, security and development interests.' Mr Burgess put the cost of espionage - including the theft of intellectual property resulting in lost revenue and responding to incidents - at $12.5billion in 2023/24. This included cyber spies stealing nearly $2billion of trade secrets and intellectual property from Australian companies. In particular, foreign agents had been targeting AUKUS and military technology secrets, he told a crowd in South Australia. 'Hackers stealing commercially sensitive information from one Australian exporter gave a foreign country a leg up in a subsequent contract negotiation, 'costing Australia hundreds of millions of dollars', Mr Burgess said. The director-general also revealed details of multiple espionage operations as he warned officials, businesses and the general public about interference threats and the impact of lax security. Australian Federal Police charged a Chinese national with reckless foreign interference early in August. The woman was accused of being tasked by China to spy on a Canberra Buddhist group. She was arrested under the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce and now faces a maximum penalty of 15 years' imprisonment. In 2022, Russian spies were deported after an ASIO investigation found they were recruiting proxies and agents to obtain sensitive information. 'You would be genuinely shocked by the number and names of countries trying to steal our secrets', Mr Burgess said. 'In this year's annual threat assessment, I called out these types of activities and put perpetrators on notice by stating, "we are watching, and we have zero tolerance". 'Anyone who thinks it is acceptable to monitor, intimidate and potentially repatriate members of our diaspora communities should never underestimate our capabilities and resolve.'
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
A slow-motion car crash is unfolding across Britain's housing market
Britain's homeowners are heading towards a cliff edge. Despite interest rates falling over the past 12 months, millions of heavily indebted households are preparing to come off cheap fixed-rate loans taken out when borrowing costs were at rock-bottom. At the same time, the housing market is at a low ebb, battered by a surge in stamp duty rates that has deterred buyers and helped drive down prices. This means that many homeowners are now being confronted with an uncomfortable reality that their flats and houses, which appeared good investments at the time, are worth much less than they had hoped. Advising sellers on what to do before their mortgage repayments jump has become a careful game of strategy for Howard Davis, of Howard Independent Estate Agents. For example, one of his clients has been trying to sell a two-bedroom flat in the leafy suburb of Clifton, Bristol, ahead of a painful remortgaging process in November. However, so far, they are struggling to do a deal for anything above the price paid for the property three years ago. 'We've reduced the price and managed to get six people around to look at it on Monday,' says Davis. 'Half of them said they quite like it, but they're frightened to commit because they're seeing other prices falling all the time. 'We were expecting, by Tuesday, to have several offers at a dramatically reduced price. And today, we haven't. So we may have to slice that price again. 'The guy's probably going to come out even from a property he bought three years ago, because he's frightened his interest rate is just going to hike up on his mortgage deal in November.' Fresh housing crunch The same is true across much of the South of England. House prices have dipped from March's peak, when the market was boosted by buyers rushing to beat the rise in stamp duty. However, more serious may be the market's failure in many parts of the country to rise at all since Liz Truss's mini-Budget of 2022, which led to a sharp drop in sales. Prices in London, the South East, the South West and the East of England are all still below their peaks almost three years ago. Across the UK as a whole, prices are up just 1.1pc over that timeframe. Worryingly, the long-held British belief that investment in property is a one-way bet is being shattered. According to Trevor Brown, a surveyor in Southend, Essex, owners can only sell if they accept the reality that their home is not worth as much as they hoped. 'There are fewer potential buyers, borrowing is still very expensive and stamp duty is levied on every sale that we see,' he says. 'It makes buying expensive. 'The first-time buyer market is out of the equation unless you have mum and dad ready to contribute considerably. And nobody is buying buy-to-lets any more at all.' Concerns over the property market have been fuelled by a recent exodus of landlords, triggered by a barrage of tax rises under the Conservatives and the introduction of Labour's renters' rights bill, which aims to strengthen the power of tenants. 'Auctions are full of tenanted properties, where landlords are getting out of the marketplace,' says Brown. All of which is teeing up what some see as a fresh housing crunch, threatening to undermine confidence in the wider economy and curbing much-needed tax revenues. However, the market has not yet completely stalled. Banks and building societies approved 188,000 mortgages in the three months to June. That is down from the 200,000 in the quarter before the stamp duty holiday ended on March 31, but is above the low of 135,000 in early 2023 in the wake of Truss's mini-Budget. But this rebound is far short of making up for lost sales in recent years, while mortgages are still running below levels seen before the pandemic. Worse still, pessimism on prices has crashed to its worst level in a year, according to the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which regularly questions its members on the state of the market. Even though the Bank of England has cut its headline interest rate from 5.25pc to 4pc over the past 12 months, the average rate paid on mortgages is still rising. That is because the cheap loans which millions of families locked into before the cost of living crisis are now coming to an end. Those borrowers often bought with a mortgage rate of less than 2pc, but must now refinance with repayments north of 4pc. The average rate paid on the nation's mortgages is up from 2.1pc at the end of 2021 to 3.9pc today, with the Bank predicting that it will keep rising to 4.1pc into 2026. Before the pandemic, the average mortgage payment was less than £700, according to direct debit data from the Office for National Statistics and Vocalink. Now it is just shy of £1,000. Bank officials estimate that 3.6 million households will remortgage onto higher rates over the next three years, while only 2.5 million will see their rate fall. It means an average increase in repayments of £107 per month in the coming years. Belt-tightening Compounding the problem is a renewed rise in living costs. David Hickman, a surveyor in Devon, says that Rachel Reeves's National Insurance tax raid has hammered the local jobs market, undermining confidence among buyers. 'There's this job insecurity going around, and that's making people sit tight and not move unless they have to,' he says. A weaker housing market, in turn, becomes a danger to both the economy and the public finances. 'When asset prices rise, it gives people confidence to go out and spend,' says Sam Miley, at the Centre for Economics and Business Research. 'And when prices are falling, it encourages people to be a bit more cautious. 'At the moment, it is an environment of slower house price growth, so that plays out in a slower rate of consumption growth.' Such concerns will not go unnoticed for those in the Government, particularly as the Chancellor prepares to plug a black hole worth as much as £50bn. The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that Labour's pledge to build more homes will trigger more property sales, which in turn will help the Treasury bring in more stamp duty for each sale. The watchdog anticipates annual revenues from stamp duty and other transaction taxes will rise from £13.5bn last year to £24.5bn by the end of the decade. But dwindling house prices will serve as a threat to that, fuelled by a recent drop-off in construction activity. Housing starts have barely budged and planning approvals have fallen to a record low since the Government unveiled its pledge to build 1.5 million homes by 2030. Any shortfall in property transactions could prove critical for Reeves, says Andrew Wishart, economist at Berenberg Bank. 'It is a relatively small tax but when the Chancellor is working with headroom of 0.2 or 0.3pc of GDP, any small tax could make the difference,' says Wishart. 'The forecast looks optimistic – when looking at housing construction volumes, they are a long, long way off the target.' However, support for the market might be on the way. Not only is the Bank of England expected to cut interest rates a little further in the coming months, but looser mortgage lending rules should also make life a little easier for first-time buyers. Yet regardless of that, many believe it will remain a buyer's market, including Jeremy Leaf, an estate agent in north London. 'There is a hell of a lot of property on the market, and if you want to stand out, you have to be realistic about price,' he says. 'A lady came in wanting to look at one of our properties. She said, 'It is very nice. But I have got 12 to see today.''
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Ex-Today sports presenter Alex Cullen's desperate bid to find a tenant for the home he has a huge mortgage on - after he was sacked by Nine and forced to move to Melbourne
Alex Cullen desperately slashed the price for his $1.9 million Summer Hill rental property from $1,800 to $1,500-a-week recently, after struggling to find a tenant. The ex-Today star, 44, was dumped by Nine earlier this year after he accepted a $50,000 payment from Adrian Portelli for calling him 'McLaren Man' live on air. Following his subsequent move to Melbourne, Alex struggled to find a tenant for his million-dollar Sydney investment property, finally securing one after five weeks of searching, reported The Daily Telegraph on Thursday. Alex was forced to progressively slash the price over several weeks before a tenant was willing to move into the house he has an eye-watering mortgage on. The media personality and his Nine Entertainment journalist wife Bonnie purchased the four-bedroom, two-bathroom property in 2020 for $1.9 million. Alex first listed the home for rent in early July after moving to Victoria when he landed a new gig on The Christian O'Connell Show for Melbourne's Gold 104.3. Built in 1912, the Queen Anne Federation dwelling has been carefully maintained and boasts classic features including stained glass windows, patterned ceiling finishes and archways. Highlights include timber flooring, original archways, decorative fireplaces and a wraparound verandah. There's also a well-appointed modern kitchen and a large backyard with a paved patio for alfresco dining. It comes after Alex revealed to Stellar magazine he was offered a gig on 7News after he was sacked by Nine. 'After everything went down, Seven were one of the first on the phone to say, "You have our support, and if you want to come back, we're a phone call away,"' he said. 'I can't tell you how much that meant to me and my family.' He went on to say he was excited to see some of his old colleagues at the network after previously working at Seven on shows including Sunrise and Sunday Night. 'It's not very nice being the story,' he said, adding: 'It's better telling the story.' Alex was dismissed from the Today show for accepting the $50,000 gift from controversial Block billionaire bidder Adrian. In January, the presenter was given the sizeable sum after he was the first media personality to use Adrian's self-proclaimed nickname 'McLaren Man' live on air, which resulted in him leaving Channel Nine. Alex's exit from Nine was announced by Today host Karl Stefanovic live on air. The scandal kicked off when Adrian had grown tired of his long-used nickname 'Mr Lambo' and offered the cash reward to the first person to use his new moniker on air, with Alex obliging on the Today show. Accepting cash, gifts or benefits to undermine journalistic independence, and improperly using a journalistic position for personal gain, are both breaches of the journalism code of ethics as defined by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance union. The ill-advised stunt led to Alex being suspended by Nine, and he did not appear on the show while the network investigated the payment. Nine's parting of ways with Alex went ahead despite Adrian's claim that the journalist intended for the money to be paid to charity all along. Network insiders also told Daily Mail Australia that the stunt could have been beneficial for the network and Adrian, if Alex had advised the promoter that, as a journalist, he was unable to accept any payment for making the comment on air. Adrian first received the unwanted nickname 'Mr Lambo' after turning up to a 2022 auction of popular house makeover show The Block in a yellow Lamborghini.
