- Hefty Australian penguin chick 'Pesto' becomes star
- Fashion's fun 'Frankenstein' flies after Olympic triumph
- Volkswagen crisis pits homegrown leaders against each other
- Princess Zelda takes the lead in 'Echoes of Wisdom'
- Astros clinch division title, Yankees kept waiting
- Asian markets boosted again after another Chinese rate cut
- The struggle to keep track of Gaza war deaths
- China cuts another key interest rate to boost economy
- Restarting nuclear power plants: the unprecedented gamble in the US
- US state executes man despite conviction doubts
- Asylum seeker lifts South Korea hopes at Homeless World Cup
- Hostages freed in Gaza truce pine for those left behind
- Pope offers refuge to Myanmar's jailed Suu Kyi: report
- Tragic tale of two West Bank teenagers freed in Gaza truce
- US intel warns of Iran threats to assassinate Trump: campaign
- In election, Hollywood is about cash not endorsements
- UK foreign minister Lammy seeks 'strongest position' for Ukraine
- Macron presses Iran president for Lebanon de-escalation
- UNRWA fears new 'tragedy' as Lebanon violence adds strain: chief to AFP
- Russia mulls ban on 'childless propaganda'
- Blackwater founder probed by Venezuela over anti-Maduro campaign
- Crypto CEO and Bankman-Fried ex Caroline Ellison gets two-year sentence
- Hezbollah announces death of commander after strike on south Beirut
- Tatum hungry for more after breakthrough Celtics success
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs sued for alleged 2001 rape
- Biden pleads for democracy in emotional UN farewell
- New York area port prepares for possible US strike disruption
- Rodri 'irreplaceable' but Guardiola confident Man City will still compete
- Brook 'relieved' as maiden ODI hundred sets up first win as England captain
- Dior's arrows and Amazons as Saint Laurent revives its master
- Mbappe strikes again as Madrid hold off Alaves
- Nkunku hits Chelsea hat-trick, Man City edge into League Cup last 16
- Amnesty calls for commission to probe Kenya protest deaths
- Bolivian government rejects Morales ultimatum for cabinet reshuffle
- US Congress calls on Novo Nordisk to lower drug prices
- Stock markets advance on China stimulus
- Russia 'can only be forced into peace," Zelensky tells UN
- Hundred hero Brook keeps England alive in Australia ODI series
- Biden pleads for democracy in final UN address
- Brook's hundred sees England beat Australia in 3rd ODI
- Alarm grows as Israel and Hezbollah exchange intense fire
- NFL legend Favre reveals Parkinson's diagnosis
- Biden urges world to 'stop arming generals' in Sudan
- Defying experts, Trump vows tariff-driven US economic boom
- Stokes open to England white-ball return
- No peak oil demand 'on the horizon', phaseout a 'fantasy': OPEC
- Sri Lanka's new leftist leader dissolves parliament, calls snap polls
- England scrum-half Mitchell to see specialist on neck injury
- Under-pressure Masood to lead Pakistan in England Tests
- Storm Helene on track to hit Florida as major hurricane
Australia hikes interest rates for first time since 2010
Australia's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than a decade on Tuesday, a pre-election hike designed to curb soaring consumer prices.
The Reserve Bank of Australia raised the main lending rate by 25 basis points to 0.35 percent, the first increase since November 2010.
Ending record-low rates, the bank cited inflation levels that had "picked up more quickly, and to a higher level, than was expected".
The move thrusts the bank to the centre of a fierce political debate about the health of Australia's economy just weeks before the May 21 elections.
The opposition Labor party has seized on the prospect of a rate rise as evidence of a weakening economy and the conservative government's economic maladministration.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is trailing in the polls, has insisted inflation is a result of worldwide trends, including the war in Ukraine.
The annual inflation rate is currently at 5.1 percent.
Like consumers around the world, Australians have been hit by soaring prices for food and fuels.
But house prices have been rising for years even as wages have stagnated. Sydney and Melbourne are among the world's most expensive cities in the world to live.
The rate rise is expected to be the first of several, which could have serious implications for Australia's once-perennially growing economy.
Higher interest rates will spell higher borrowing costs for millions of already heavily indebted Australians, in a country where real estate market speculation at times appears to be a national pastime.
Interest rates of two percent would cost the average homeowner about US$362 a month, according to financial services website RateCity.com.au.
"That's going to be a lot for many borrowers to swallow, particularly anyone already struggling to make the monthly budget add up," said RateCity's Sally Tindall.
Australia's vast resource wealth has for decades provided insulation from global financial headwinds and underpinned high standards of living.
The country is among the world's largest producers and exporters of iron ore, gas and coal.
But there are growing concerns that the "lucky country's" run of good fortune may be coming to an end.
In early 2020 the economy fell into recession for the first time in almost three decades, largely because of devastating bushfires and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Climate-fuelled floods, bushfires and droughts are proving increasingly costly.
This year's east coast floods cost an estimated Aus$3.35 billion (US$2.4 billion) in insured losses, making it the costliest flood in Australia's history, according to the Insurance Council of Australia.
E.Schubert--BTB