Asian stocks and the won plunged to 10-month lows after a report that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered his military to prepare for combat last week. The euro weakened and commodities declined on concern Europe’s debt crisis will spread. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 3.1 percent to 109.24 a 1:30 p.m. in Tokyo, set for [...]

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Westpac Banking Corp., Australia’s second-biggest lender, said fiscal first-half profit climbed 32 percent, joining the nation’s top banks in posting higher earnings as markets recover and fewer borrowers miss repayments. Net income in the six months ended March 31 rose to a record A$2.88 billion ($2.6 billion) from A$2.18 billion in the same period a [...]

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Australia’s economy grew last quarter at the fastest pace in almost two years, underscoring the central bank’s decision yesterday to boost borrowing costs for the fourth time in five meetings. Gross domestic product climbed 0.9 percent from the third quarter, when it gained a revised 0.3 percent, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney today. That [...]

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The biggest Australian jobs boom in five years may make it harder for central bank GovernorGlenn Stevens to extend a pause in recent interest-rate gains. Investors doubled bets the Reserve Bank of Australia will raise the overnight cash rate target by a quarter percentage point to 4 percent next month after a report yesterday showed employers [...]

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Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — Australianemployers added the most workers in more than three years in January, sending the currency surging on speculation the central bank will resume its record round of interest-rate increases. The number of people employed rose 52,700 from December, the fifth straight monthly gain, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. The [...]

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SYDNEY: Australia’s treasurer said on Sunday the government would withdraw its bank funding guarantee due to improved conditions, ending a scheme put in place at the height of the global crisis. Treasurer Wayne Swan said the Council of Financial Regulators had recommended ending the measure, which he said had been vital in stabilising Australia’s banking [...]

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SYDNEY : French bank Societe Generale on Monday said that it was considering pulling out of Australia and was in discussions with regulators regarding its banking licence. Australian branch chief executive John Harvey said no decision had yet been made but that a total exit was “clearly on the agenda”, adding that the bank was [...]

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