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- 01SEP2021-WED
01SEP2021-WED
Business news and updates: Sydney petrol prices hit a record high
Wednesday 1st September 2021
Choose a hybrid working solution that connects your people and their devices in any space
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, around 65.5 per cent of employees worldwide were forced to work from home, with Australians quickly embracing remote working during the first wave. The Families in Australia Survey: Towards COVID Normal was released in June 2021, just before the latest harsh lockdown restrictions. It found that among the employed survey respondents, 67 per cent were sometimes or always working from home, compared to 42 per cent pre-COVID.
Three Australian businesses hitting the ball for six in India
India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and has become a lucrative market for Australian exporters. Ascensus, Swisse and Mineral Technologies are three Australian-based businesses that have found success working with Austrade through its Australian Indian Business Exchange (AIBX).
Economic downturns: How SMEs can survive
When the economy hits a rough patch, small and medium businesses suffer first and often worse than their larger counterparts. But why is this, and how can consumers and businesses owners best withstand economic shocks? Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen small businesses suffer through lockdowns, reduced capacities and COVID-19 restrictions. These issues are specific to the current economic downturn. Aside from and on top of this, businesses face the more widespread impacts of reduced consumer spending.
Five steps to planning your way out of a Covid-impacted market
Making plans for the growth of your business is still something you need to do, but in a Covid-impacted market, there are some important considerations to include in the planning process.It’s not that these considerations would have been excluded before, but the emphasis now is more important.
With the development of payment options such as digital wallets, the way Australians pay for items in stores has experienced a technological transformation in recent years. The federal government has released the final report of its payments system study, which looked at whether the system is still fit for purpose and whether Australia is well-positioned to benefit from new technology. Scott Farrell, a lawyer and payments expert, performed the evaluation. It calls for increased government control and powers to preserve the payments system, as well as the development of a strategic plan for the entire payments ecosystem in collaboration with business.
Brent crude rose US$7.52 a barrel, or 11.5 per cent, to US$72.70 a barrel last week. The United States Nymex price increased by US$6.42 per barrel, or 10.3%, to US$68.74 per barrel. It was the most significant increase in both prices since June 2020. According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the average price of unleaded gasoline in Sydney increased by 10.5 cents per litre last week, reaching a new high of 166.5 cents per litre (the previous high was 163.9 for the week of July 13, 2008).
The immediate impact of Hurricane Ida on the nation’s oil and petroleum industries might raise gas prices, worsening inflation that is already harming Americans. However, the degree of the damage will determine how much and for how long prices will rise. The hurricane wreaked havoc on Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, killing at least one person and knocking out power to over a million people.
According to a new study, three-quarters of a million American households could be evicted this year if Congress does not pass a new eviction moratorium. According to Goldman Sachs, between 2.5 million and 3.5 million families are late on their rent, owing landlords a total of $12 billion to $17 billion.
Three banking and policy experts say China’s currency regulator is undertaking a rare survey of banks and enterprises to inquire about their risk management practices and capabilities to withstand Yuan volatility.
Koo, India’s version of Twitter, has surpassed 10 million subscribers, closing the gap with the United States microblogging service. Since February, when Twitter’s disagreements with the Modi administration escalated, roughly 85 per cent of its users have joined the 16-month-old app, which allows users to send tweet-like posts in English and seven Indian languages such as Hindi and Kannada.
Monthly retail numbers have highlighted the economic damage caused by the Greater Sydney Delta outbreak, which has put the country’s southeast on lockdown. Monthly retail sales volumes declined for the first time in six months in July, according to the latest Central Statistics Office statistics. Retail sales fell 1.7 per cent in July, as stronger liquor sales from the sector’s reopening could not compensate for a decline in department store purchases from a peak in June. However, overall sales were 5.2 per cent higher than the same month a year ago, when the economy’s first lockup was being unravelled, and 14 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels in July 2019, according to the CSO.The highest monthly gain in sales in July was recorded in bars, where sales increased by 18.6 per cent, while electrical products sales increased by 5.8 per cent. Carpets, rugs, games and toys, flowers, plants, seeds, fertilisers, pets and pet food, and jewellery sales all decreased by 19.6 per cent, while department store sales fell by 17.2 per cent.
A Senate inquiry has shown that some foreign businesses are making a “mockery” of Australia’s foreign investment rules by failing to follow through on commitments made while seeking regulatory permission for investments. The report proposed three modifications to Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board structure, including requiring foreign bidders to deliver on promises made in takeover bids. The report looked at foreign investment in six companies, including three Tasmanian investments: Van Dairy Limited (VDL), the Musselroe Bay resort, and Bellamy’s, a baby formula producer.
As lockdowns continue across Australia, many households are doing something they may not have considered just 18 months ago: ordering groceries online. Australia’s supermarket duopoly, Coles and Woolworths, have raced to implement new technology and transform labour arrangements to keep up with the e-grocery boom.Both are investing in “smart” warehousing and distribution systems with various degrees of automation, as well as making extensive use of app-driven gig workers for grocery picking and delivery via platforms such as Uber and Airtasker.
According to a court filing, Alphabet’s Google made US$11.2 billion in revenue from its mobile app store in 2019, providing a detailed glimpse into the service’s financial outcomes for the first time.Gross profit was $ 8.5 billion, and operating profit was around $ 7.0 billion at the same time. At the end of 2019, the Google Play platform’s operating profit margin hit 62 per cent. The figures included sales of apps, in-app purchases, and app store ads.
Robin Li, the CEO of Baidu, China’s largest search engine, believes artificial intelligence and related fields such as autonomous driving are key to the company’s future success. In the face of increased competition and a challenging advertising market, the Beijing-based corporation has concentrated on broadening its business. At its annual Baidu World conference in Guangzhou, Baidu presented its second-generation AI processor, its first “robocar,” and a rebranded autonomous taxi app
China has issued a warning to companies that overwork their employees. China’s highest court issued a detailed denunciation of “996,” the practice of working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week that is claimed to be widespread among the country’s big technology companies, startups, and other private businesses.“Recently, extreme overtime work in some industries has received widespread attention,” the Supreme People’s Court wrote in its statement, which is issued with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Workers deserve rights for “rest and vacation,” adding that “adhering to the national working hour system is the legal obligation of employers,” the court wrote.
Many Chinese apps continue to grow exponentially a year after the Indian government swooped on the country’s app eco-system for engaging in activities “prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity, and security of India,” including some from companies that were explicitly banned, such as Alibaba, Bytedance, and Xiaomi. The majority of these companies have sought to conceal their Chinese roots by renaming their apps and providing little information about who owns them.
