We’re obsessed with interest rates in Australia, keeping a keen eye on RBA decisions and subsequent reactions from lenders. But just what’s going on with rates at the moment? MYOB’s Kristy Sheppard explains…
Businesses have recorded a significant jump in sales and profit expectations for the June 2012 quarter, with sales expectations rising to levels not seen since 2003.
Westpac will cut around 400 jobs from its head office, technology and operations teams this year, to compensate for a slow down in loan growth.
The number of trading businesses in Australia rose 0.4 percent in 2010-11, thanks to an increase in new business registrations and a decline in exit rates, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said.
Business confidence improved slightly in December despite challenging economic conditions in the Eurozone, though conditions remained flat across the majority of industries.
Businesses are pessimistic about trading conditions and their performance for the first quarter of 2012, as concerns about the European debt crisis and the slowing Chinese economy pulled down the majority of indicators in the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (ACCI) Survey of Investor Confidence.
Two consecutive interest rate cuts have failed to boost post-Christmas consumer sentiment, a result economists have called “disappointing.” But slowing inflation means businesses may benefit from more rate cuts in the months to come.
Almost three in five Australian small business owners (55 percent) will work during the Christmas/New Year holiday break and more than one in three (36 percent) will not take any time off.
A survey conducted by financial software Reckon has found that 66 percent of small businesses have reported either increased (41%) or stable (25%) revenue this year and more than 80 percent of business expect to have positive or stable revenue in 2012.
Opposition spokesperson Senator Scott Ryan on how the Federal Government has failed small business:
“Small businesses comprise 96 percent of all Australian enterprises. It is a sector that is only ignored at our greater peril, yet it is one to which this Labor Government has refused to listen.”
