ECONOMY

Resigned Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond admitted before the British Parliament that bank personnel may have been involved with low balling or rate fixing since 2005 but insisted that he no direct knowledge of the illegal practices until three years ago.

Qantas's worst fears of further losing share of the lucrative domestic market were confirmed. Aviation industry reports said that Virgin Australia ferried more domestic passengers in the past 12 months to May compared to Qantas.

Virgin Australia has launched codeshare services with Virgin America in conjunction of this year's Fourth of July celebrations.

Was the disclosure of an unconfirmed takeover offer necessary at all? David Jones believes so as it informed the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Monday night that transparency was its utmost concern when it broke the news of an impending buyout that failed to materialise.

Yields data confirmed that Qantas continues to lose heavily even in the once-profitable domestic operations. According to reports, Qantas suffered a 0.8 per cent decline in its international operations in monthly yields and an even larger 1.3 per cent for its domestic operations.

The problem with most airlines is that they are quick on the draw to implement extra charges once airline fuel goes up, but are slow to revert when the same goes down, thus said Flight Centre, Australia's largest travel agent, as it lambasted Australian air carriers Qantas Airways Limited and Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd for their poor inaction to automatically lower their surcharges.

Luxury department store David Jones has reportedly attracted the attention of a UK-based firm as company chair Robert Savage confirmed this afternoon the floating of an unsolicited takeover offer to one of Australia's oldest retail player.

Despite weaker commodity prices globally, Australia expects record-high $209 billion export revenue from mining and energy resources in the coming financial year. The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics attributes its optimism to new resource projects going full blast this year.

Metcash reported on Thursday northbound results but behind the numbers were the wholesale grocer's shrinking income, which the company admitted had plunged by more than 62 per cent in the past 12 months leading to end of April 2012.

A new McKinsey report released on Tuesday showed that there is widespread pessimism among business leaders over the prospects of the global economy.

The interest rate cutbacks imposed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in the past two months seemed unable to convince Aussies to shop for new homes, bank executives said on Tuesday.

The competition between Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia further heats up as the latter unveiled today plans to secure more service routes to Europe via the code sharing arrangement the airline had earlier inked with Singapore Airlines.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) sees no reason for alarm amidst observations by some economists that the country's housing sector could witness the same meltdown that humbled the U.S. economy in 2008.

Gordon Merchant, founder and biggest shareholder of troubled surfwear retailer Billabong International, announced on Tuesday it is open yet again to accepting takeover bids for the company. Billabon shares dived 47.5 per cent into a massive whirlpool after coming out of a trading halt since Thursday.

Due to the threat posed by foreign airlines that buy shares of Australian air carriers, the Opposition has suggested amending Qantas's ownership law to achieve a more level playing field for the losing flag carrier.

Right now, we have a distant but comfortable view of the global debt crisis. It affects the stock market and your retirement savings. Apart from that there is no discernible impact. But if you look closely there is a lot to discern.

The International Air Travel Association's (IATA) warning at last week's Beijing meeting that more large air carriers are expected to collapse in the next 12 months may come to pass after more turbulence continues to batter Australian flag carrier Qantas.

The country's farm exports is forecast to go down 5 per cent for 2012-13 to $34.4 billion from $36 billion. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) issued the downgrade on Tuesday in its March forecast.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced on Tuesday that the 31 remaining All GAME stores in Australia would be closed after failure to find a buyer. PwC was appointed administrator of the video games retailer after All GAME's British parent company collapsed and placed into administration.

Mining billionaire Clive Palmer is apparently dead-serious in resurrecting one of modern history's most iconic figures - the Titanic, disclosing on Tuesday that definite plans were underway for the passenger ship's maiden voyage in 2016.

Victorian Ports Minister Dennis Napthine said on Monday that the state government would keep the Port of Melbourne in public hands and would even invest $400 million at Webb Dock.

Even if Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart invested $86 million into Fairfax Media last week after she upped her stake to 19 per cent, the company still needs to wield its axe and chop off some jobs and costs.

While the yearly gathering last week of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Beijing, China drew delegates from different airlines around the world, in the next 12 months attendees in the next summit could be down.

While many Australians may have renewed their love for driving around during the holidays instead of traveling overseas, this development may spell bad news for the financially challenged Qantas.

Australia's skills shortages were no longer confined in the resource sector as a new report pointed to the likelihood that local firms will soon look beyond the country's shores to fill up job positions normally handled by Aussies.

Sluggish sales continue to threaten Ford Australia's local operations as the carmaker announced on Wednesday planned adjustments that it hopes would arrest further losses.

After chopping the overnight cash rate by 50 basis points last week, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has trained its sight this time on credit card surcharges imposed by merchants.

The strong Australian dollar caused Sydney and five other Aussie cities to have major boosts in their ranking of the world's most expensive cities for expatriates. Based on the 2012 Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living Survey released on Wednesday, Sydney was the 11th city with the highest cost of living.

Qantas Airways assumed an offensive stance on Tuesday to fend off suggestions that the struggling national carrier was in the brink of a hostile takeover following its loss of more than $1 billion in market value last week.