$A up on iron ore bounceback
The resurgence of iron ore has underpinned a 6.5% rally by the share market over the past month, posing another headache for the Reserve Bank of Australia and providing further support for the Australian dollar after investors wrote off the key steel-making commodity, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The improvement in the iron ore price has spurred resources stocks BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto higher. At the same time, the calming of macro-economic risks from Europe and the United States has emboldened investors to seek superior returns from shares, as interest rates on term deposits fall.
Iron ore is fetching $US133.80 a tonne and has appreciated 12.15% since the start of November. Beginning in the middle of last month, the resources index staged an 8.7% turnaround, outperforming the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index’s 6.5% gain over that same period.
Legal centre pays price for bid to cripple coal
THE New South Wales government has pulled the funding from a community legal centre that helped draft a secret plan to cripple coal exports, according to The Australian.
Under guidelines to be unveiled today by NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith, funding for the Environmental Defenders Office and 35 other community legal centres will be refocused on clients who are socially and economically disadvantaged, and away from activism and political lobbying.
World Bank expects Asia-Pacific growth
The World Bank has forecast that the Asia-Pacific region, which remains the most important driver of the international economy, will grow at 7.9% next year despite concerns about the US and Eurozone economic woes, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Washington-based lender predicted the region - home to Australia's most important trading partners - would grow at 7.5% this year.
China, the region's most important economy, had the slowest pace of growth since 1999. Its GDP growth dropped by as much as 1.4%, from last year's 9.3% to a decade-low of 7.9% this year.
The World Bank attributed the slowdown to weak exports and the government's effort to cool the overheating housing sector, but there were signs of recovery in the final months of the year.
