Erik Pineda

Toyota Australia implemented on Monday the job cuts it announced earlier this year on its Altona assembly facilities in Melbourne, which the Japanese carmaker has attributed to shrinking orders and the constantly rising Australian dollar.

The Coalition says Australian banks were merely laying out policies that would shield their profit margins as Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) decided on Friday last week to push up its interest rate, again ignoring the April rates hold announced by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

Emerging economies have ramped up their campaign to finally secure the World Bank (WB) top post, possibly strengthening their efforts by fielding a single candidate.

A higher financial firewall may not be necessary for now, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde, reversing her earlier calls of putting up a deep war chest to combat threats of global recession.

The mining industry resumed its fight against what it called excessive tax measures being unleashed by the federal government with the publication of full-page ads that called attention on alleged tax hikes planned by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard opened on Friday the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting with emphasis on two main agenda - reducing regulatory hurdles and addressing the skills shortages.

Thousands of jobs were created last month, leaving a steady pace so far for Australia's jobless rate but economists remain anxious of underlying weaknesses, the existence of which could be confirmed by the soon-to-be relased inflation figures.

Boeing revealed on Wednesday the imminent release of the final engineering blueprint for its highly-touted 737 MAX, an upgrade of the plane manufacturer's bestselling 737 commercial aircraft.

Home loan approvals in February declined anew, according to the new data issued on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), highlighting a slump in housing sector that started in the first month of 2012.

The government was asking too much from the mining industry, according to leading resource players, as they scored a new federal regulation that require them to furnish information that would allow non-mining firms to capitalise too on the ongoing mining boom.

Acknowledging that the present aged care system badly needs overhaul, the federal government is mulling for ways to effectively address the problem without derailing its goal of realising a surplus by 2013.

It is more prudent to save up now to prepare for the rainy days as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted considerable slides in prices of commodities for financial year 2012-2013.

The Australian central bank has been fairly consistent on rolling out its rates policies but its decisions were not of any help to the local economy.

A closer cooperation on infrastructure projects between Australia and China is expected to emerge from the newly-signed deal that governments of the two nations hope would further strengthen their trade relations despite the tensions that recently arose.

Internship arrangements have reportedly been abused by many employers that the Fair Work Ombudsman has been prodded to look deeper into allegations that companies have been using the set-up to enjoy 'free services' from hapless workers.

The tech world's patent wars continue and Microsoft is bent on building up its armoury by securing hundreds of patent rights from former internet titan, AOL Inc.

Love Instagram? Well you will surely be counted with the 30 million plus global users that the mobile app has attracted so far and Facebook quickly took notice of the online social commotion and decided to join the fun.

The dollar is down a bit and demands for commodities have generally eased down, according to major mining players, prompting many economists to suggest that Australia's surge of investments had reached the inevitable limits.

The competition watchdog has cleared the way for Foxtel's $2-billion proposal to fully acquire its Pay TV rival Austar but with explicit limitations that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) stressed should safeguard competition in the industry.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has adopted a hands-off policy in dealing with the Craig Thomson affair, insisting that the matter should be resolved by following the due course of the law.

The sufferings of dementia patients in Australia have been compounded by inefficiency, indifference and inability of the existing health care system to deal with the rising cases of Alzheimer's Diseases in the country.

Australians will have to pay more on home bills once the carbon tax takes effect in July this year but the federal government said these additional expenses will be erased by considerable rebates under the tax program.

Bringing back the budget to surplus by next year is imperative for the Australian economy despite claims that deep spending cuts could hamper economic growth.

Keeping out China from Australia's multi-billion national broadband network (NBN) telecommunication build up was unjust, especially if the decision was based on mere suspicions.

China needs to roll out important banking reforms that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said would hopefully rectify flaws in the distribution of much-required private capitals.

Retailers are looking to Easter sale season for some sort of resurrection following solid indication that more and more consumers shied away from the shopping scene during the Christmas holiday shopping spree.

Business executives deserve huge pay considering huge responsibilities on their hands and the risks that come with the job.

The Senate may finally have a deeper look on the probe that Fair Work Australia (FWA) has conducted on the alleged questionable practices of Health Services Union (HSU) officials following strong prodding from legislators.

Facebook unleashed its retaliatory actions against Yahoo, which the social networking giant has accused of using technologies that it claims exclusive ownership of.