ECONOMY

Workers’ remittances in the first two months of 2011 reached $2.98 billion, up by nearly 7 percent from the year-ago, raising optimism that total inflows for full year will reach $20 billion.

For the first time in a little over a month, the first commercial aircraft landed in the airport of Sendai, the largest city in the northeast of Japan devastated by a powerful 10-meter high tsunami.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced its first trade finance agreements with Georgia that will provide guarantees and loans through banks in the central Asian country.

The Australian economy is emerging progressively from the slump caused by natural calamities and a severe shoot up in interest rates at the end of 2010.

A 7.4 magnitude earthquake striked the sea near Miyagi Region in northeastern Japan at 23:32 p.m. (1432 GMT) local Time Thursday.

Australia's construction industry remained in the red in February, although the rate of contraction eased, with the Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Construction Index (Australian PCI) in conjunction with the Housing Industry Association, up 4.4 points to 44.6 (readings below 50 indicate a contraction in activity).

Steeper falls in activity, new orders and employment saw the national construction industry suffer a bigger fall in March.

Home loans plunged in February as the share of first-home buyers continue to decrease. This is home loan’s second consecutive month drop with New South Wales posting its biggest monthly decline in fourteen years.

Retailers have breathed a sigh of relief with the decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) this afternoon to keep the cash rate stable at 4.75 per cent, according to the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA).

As overseas sale of coal remained blocked by severe floods in Queensland, Australia announced a first monthly trade deficit since March 2010 in February.

South Australia's monthly retail spending has lagged behind national spending since May last year, official figures show.

Global disasters will likely impact the Australian economy through the fourth quarter of 2011, with its expansion projected to be hampered by sluggish pace that experts said should commence by the second quarter of the year.

The push to return the Budget to surplus by 2012/13 must not come at the cost of jobs or cuts to vital programs, services that working people and their communities rely on.

Renewed safety concerns regarding nuclear generation resulting from the massive Japanese earthquake may benefit the development of new liquefied natural gas projects (LNG) in Australia, according to an international ratings agency.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending a $300 million loan for road improvements that will lead to new economic opportunities and improve access to essential services in Madhya Pradesh, one of India's poorest states.

The recovery in the global economy will help the Pacific economies improve in 2011. The strongest gains are expected in the resource-rich countries that are benefiting from both major new resource projects and better world commodity prices, says the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Pacific Economic Monitor.

Building approvals in January saw their biggest monthly slump in over eight years as the extreme weather that inundated Queensland and Victoria aggravated the slowdown.

Manufacturing in Australia was back in growth territory in February with the seasonally adjusted Australian Industry Group -PwC Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index ( PMI) rising 4.4 points to 51.1.

The value of construction work done in Australia in the fourth quarter rose by 0.8 per cent in the December quarter, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

A new State Government campaign has enlisted the help of some of Queensland's most famous faces to spread the message that much of Queensland is back in business following recent natural disasters.

The downgrade warning on Australia’s four major banks sent out on Wednesday by Moody’s will leave little effect on their standing, according to analysts, who insisted that concerns over the sluggish recovery of credit demands have overshadowed the banks’ financing issues.

The current cash rates in effect is the right one considering the prevailing economic indicators, which has prompted the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to keep it at 4.75 percent, according to the minutes of its board meeting on February 1.

For more than four decades, Japan flexed its economic might and ruled as the second biggest economy in the world, next only to the United State, and that changed today as Asia’s rising sun was finally eclipsed by global factory powerhouse China.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens believes that the current cash rates were at their appropriate levels and they only appear tight because most Australians have become wiser in handling their cash flow.

As Queensland copes with the impacts of the 2010-2011 wet season, research undertaken by the Australian Institute of Marine Science shows the frequency of extreme rainfall events has increased since the late 19th century.

Shoppers are more likely to hit the stores in February, according to the latest Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer confidence survey released on Wednesday.

A flat property market amid a healing economy, gradually improving consumer confidence and a likely construction boom in the aftermath of the recent natural disasters in Queensland and other parts of Australia are all likely to contribute towards a year of extremes within in the Australian economy, including a period of higher inflation during the second half of 2011, according to national accounting firm Chan & Naylor.

Retail sales in Australia rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, coming in timidy at A$20.358 billion.

The Australian economy would go through a phase of soft activities for the first six months of 2011, mainly due to the devastations wrought by the Queensland floods, but the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) maintained that a sweeping rebound will be seen by the second half.