A Taste of Italy: Celebrating the Italian heritage of King Valley wines
The rich Italian heritage of the King Valley region is helping produce fine wines that hold their own on the world stage.
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News.com.au
19 hours ago
- News.com.au
US markets ‘move lower' due to ‘heightened event risk'
CommSec's Tom Piotrowski says markets in the United States and Europe moved 'lower' overnight due to 'heightened event risk'. 'As we head into the weekend, that brings with it heightened event risk, so that in itself is part of the reason you saw US and European markets move lower overnight,' Mr Piotrowski told Sky News Australia. 'The US markets were closed to observe the Juneteenth public holiday, but notwithstanding, there's still participation in the futures market and after-hours trade, and to that end, we saw losses of around 0.9 per cent for the Dow and the S&P 500. 'The Nasdaq down by about a per cent.'
News.com.au
21 hours ago
- News.com.au
Swiss central bank cuts interest rates to zero per cent
The Swiss National Bank cut interest rates to zero per cent on Thursday as inflation cools and the franc strengthens, while the economic outlook has deteriorated. The SNB, however, held off a decision to return to its era of negative rates — a policy that helped to curb the Swiss franc's rise but was unpopular among pension funds and other investors. The franc's movement is also under scrutiny in the United States, as the US Treasury Department added Switzerland to its watch list of countries likely to manipulate their currencies earlier this month. The Bank of England kept its key interest rate at 4.25 per cent on Thursday and Norway's central bank announced a surprise cut by a quarter point to 4.25 per cent. The decisions came a day after the US Federal Reserve maintained its benchmark borrowing costs unchanged, citing concerns over high inflation and slowing growth in the world's biggest economy. Gloomy outlook The SNB said its interventions in the foreign exchange market were not aimed at increasing the Swiss economy's competitiveness, but rather were attempts to ensure price stability. The Swiss currency is a safe haven investment that has climbed against the dollar since US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on imports in April. In Thursday's statement, the SNB — which has denied manipulating the franc — said it was still 'willing to be active in the foreign exchange market'. The SNB cited easing inflationary pressure in its decision to cut rates by a quarter point, but it also pointed to a gloomy economic forecast. 'The global economic outlook for the coming quarters has deteriorated due to the increase in trade tensions,' the central bank said, adding that the outlook for Switzerland remained uncertain. Karsten Junius, chief economist at the Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin, said it would 'not have been the appropriate time' to surprise the markets, and might even have 'harmed the SNB's standing' to do so. Cooling inflation The SNB said Swiss gross domestic product growth was strong in the first quarter of the year — largely due to exports to the United States being brought forward ahead of Trump's tariff manoeuvres. But stripping that factor out, growth was more moderate, and is likely to slow again and remain subdued for the rest of the year, the SNB said. The SNB expects GDP growth of one per cent to 1.5 per cent for 2025, and for 2026 too. The bank lowered its inflation forecast for 2025 from 0.4 per cent to 0.2 per cent, and for 2026 from 0.8 per cent to 0.5 per cent. Negative rates Between 2015 and 2022, the SNB's monetary policy was based on a negative interest rate of minus 0.75 per cent — which increased the cost of deposits held by banks and financial institutions relative to the amounts they were required to entrust to the central bank. Negative rates make the Swiss franc less attractive to investors as it reduces returns on investments. Overnight, the Swiss franc was down 0.02 per cent against the dollar and up 0.10 per cent against the euro. Adrian Prettejohn, Europe economist at the London-based research group Capital Economics, expected the SNB to move rates to negative 0.25 per cent at its September meeting due to deflation. 'There are also significant downside risks to inflation from trade tensions as well as heightened geopolitical uncertainty, which could push up the value of the franc further,' he said. Following the SNB's announcement, the Swiss franc rose slightly against the dollar and the euro. Switzerland's biggest bank UBS said it expected the SNB to keep its rate at zero per cent for the coming 12 months, and said the central bank's statement suggested it was 'not particularly worried about the current level of the Swiss franc exchange rate'. Kathleen Brooks, research director at the XTB trading platform, said that if the SNB wanted a weaker currency it was 'going to have to intervene directly in the foreign exchange market and sell francs, or it will have to reinstall a peg and defend the level it wants to achieve'.
The Australian
3 days ago
- The Australian
Strong case for more Europe in the Indo-Pacific region
The era of globalisation, which helped deliver Australia's prosperity and security for seven decades, has been supplanted by a systemic struggle between authoritarianism and accountable democracy. Thus, every partnership Australia can leverage becomes a multiplier for our national security. Europe's confrontation with Moscow's aggression, manifest on Ukrainian battlefields and in the sabotage of energy and communications infrastructure in the Baltic Sea and the Kremlin's attempts to manipulate democratic process, holds important lessons for Australia, militarily and politically. China is studying Russia's form. In May, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposed to Anthony Albanese that Australia and the EU conclude a security and defence partnership. Brussels already has these with Tokyo and Seoul, which are key partners for Australia in promoting regional security and defence co-operation and, like us, have treaty relationships with the US. If focused on value-adding outcomes rather than bureaucratic process and architecture, this would consolidate our bilateral relationships with capable and influential countries that share our commitment to democracy, accountability, and the rule of law. We continue, rightly, to prioritise our engagement in our Indo-Pacific region. Nevertheless, we should reinforce collaboration with Europe to support our strategic goals: to shape our region in ways that align with our interests; deter actions inimical to those interests; and respond with credible military force if required. First articulated in the Coalition's Defence Strategic Update of July 2020, these principles underpin Labor's National Defence Strategy 2024, with an emphasis on deterrence. This continuity in strategic thinking is welcome. It should engender a more bipartisan approach to national security than we generally see, noting that security extends well beyond defence. It encompasses self-reliance and national resilience, expressed in increased industrial and manufacturing capabilities, education, social cohesion, and nurturing the resolve to withstand coercion and protect our democracy from malign influences. Despite Brexit and occasional populist spasms, the EU remains a strong, democratic and rules-based bloc of almost 450 million people, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of global GDP, ranking third after the US and China (Australia's share is 1 per cent). Revisionist and revanchist nations are assaulting the international rule of law. Beyond its substantial economic, R&D, and manufacturing capacities, Europe possesses significant soft power and influence. It sets standards and norms in areas of increasing importance to the global south such as climate change, sustainability, health, and food and energy security. In the global contest for narrative dominance, the European story of eight decades of post-World War II security, stability and prosperity holds greater appeal than we appreciate or employ in shaping regional attitudes and policies. By contrast, revisionist and revanchist nations are assaulting the international rule of law. They invoke the UN Charter when it suits but otherwise ignore it, asserting instead the will of the strong over the weak by using military force and economic coercion as instruments of statecraft. In waging its brutal and illegitimate war of choice against Ukraine, Russia exemplifies the double standards of which it routinely and hypocritically accuses the West. Its Faustian pact with North Korea proves that security threats are not regionally bounded. By swapping shells, troops and missiles for Putin's war in Ukraine with energy, food and advanced military technology assistance for Pyongyang, Moscow has embroiled Australia's strategic longitudes in its European war with potentially far-reaching implications, including for nuclear non-proliferation. In March 2024, Russia vetoed the continuation of the UN Panel of Experts responsible for monitoring implementation of nine UN Security Council resolutions adopted – with Russia's support – between 2006 and 2017 that imposed sanctions upon the DPRK over its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs. France's President Emmanuel Macron gives the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue Summit in Singapore on May 30. Picture: AFP In response, Australia joined Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Britain and the US to establish the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team in October 2024 to continue this important work. This group illustrates the interdependencies between European and Indo-Pacific security. Underscoring this is the significant European presence at our region's premier security forum, the Shangri La Dialogue, Singapore from May 30 to June 1: the EU Commission, NATO, Sweden, Britain, Ukraine, Finland, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Poland and Lithuania. In his keynote address, French President Emmanuel Macron emphasised that one million citizens and 8000 troops deployed in French territories across the Indo-Pacific meant Paris remained heavily invested in stability and security here. He reflected upon the phenomenon and threat of countries seeking not just spheres of influence, but 'spheres of coercion'. It is here that Australia has plenty to offer Europe. Our experience of Chinese coercion will help those nations that recently have realised that, while stable relations with China are necessary, desirable and support economic prosperity, prudence demands vigilance and resolve in the face of attempts to suborn our democracies. If Australia is to develop greater sovereign defence industrial capability, including to support the Future Made in Australia agenda, we need a consumer base larger than the 59,000-strong Australian Defence Force. Australian businesses must become better integrated into the trusted global defence supply chain among our allies in AUKUS and Europe, as well as Japan and South Korea. Old-fashioned words such as subversion and sabotage are regaining currency around the world, accelerated and amplified by the ubiquity and immediacy of mass communications. An EU security and defence partnership could enhance industry collaboration via the EU's new ReArm Europe/Readiness 2030 program. This will leverage more than €800bn ($1.4 trillion) in defence spending, including a new €150bn loan instrument – the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) – for joint procurement, and expanded European Investment Bank support. A challenge here, though, is dispelling European business perceptions that Australia is pre-disposed to US platforms and capabilities. Recent interactions between Australia and EU member states, and the EU Commission in Brussels, have focused on common challenges and responses to foreign information manipulation and interference. The European External Action Service has invested heavily in this area. Its efforts to not only counter disinformation but also proactively shape positive narratives are a natural hub for co-ordinated EU-Australia co-operation. The FIMI challenge is one of the fronts in the systemic struggle in which we are often unwittingly engaged. Old-fashioned words such as subversion and sabotage are regaining currency around the world, accelerated and amplified by the ubiquity and immediacy of mass communications, AI manipulation, and the ability of malign actors such as Russia to work with the grain of our societies, exploiting the fractiousness and contestability that are inherent in, and the strength of, accountable democracy. Putin's war in Ukraine demonstrates that deterrence is also a binding agent between Europe and the Indo-Pacific. This is true whether the danger manifests in Russia's cultural genocide in eastern Ukraine, its wanton assaults on Ukraine's civilian population in defiance of the laws of war, or from the latent threat posed by China's military build-up and bellicose rhetoric aimed at those disinclined to accept a Beijing-centric sphere of deference. As British Russia analyst Keir Giles observed in his 2024 book Who Will Defend Europe?, any military conflict which does not end almost immediately will become a prolonged contest 'not between military forces, but between societies, and their respective resilience, industrial capacity, and will to fight and win.' That core thesis is as relevant for Australia as it is for Europe. Bending our common efforts to that challenge would be in our national interest and would send a strong signal to our allies and adversaries alike. Peter Tesch is a visiting fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies and a former deputy secretary of defence and Australian ambassador to Russia and to Germany.
