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Speaker 1: It's Monday, the seventeenth of February twenty twenty five. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed,

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Speaker 1: where we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know and it's five minutes. Are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning Adam Lang.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael.

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Speaker 1: All right Adam. Five stories to race through in five minutes.

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Speaker 1: Let's go story number one. It is rate cut week,

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Speaker 1: with the Reserve Bank Board meeting today and tomorrow to

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Speaker 1: deliberate on whether Australians need their first interest rate cut

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Speaker 1: since November twenty twenty. Now, the consensus among market economists,

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Speaker 1: including interestingly the chief economists of the big four banks,

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Speaker 1: is that rates will fall.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Michael, the evidence for a rate cut is growing.

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Speaker 2: Underlying inflation, which takes out volatile items, is at three

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Speaker 2: point two percent per year and indicating to head lower.

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Speaker 2: The labor market remains strong, but wag's growth has come

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Speaker 2: off the boil and that's lessening expected inflationary effects from

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Speaker 2: those higher wage costs. The economy itself is week at best,

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Speaker 2: with the latest growth figure suggesting the economy is expanding

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Speaker 2: at less than one percent. It was backed up by

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Common last week, who said credit

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Speaker 2: card and debit card data show softness in parts of

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Speaker 2: the economy.

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Speaker 1: It would be wrong, though, Adam, to say it's a

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Speaker 1: dune deal. Services inflation is still too high in Australia,

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Speaker 1: so to some parts of housing. Last week, US inflation

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Speaker 1: figures ticked up again, demonstrating that really the inflation genie

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Speaker 1: is not fully back in the bottle in that economy. Also,

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Speaker 1: this is the last meeting of the RBA Board as

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Speaker 1: it is after tomorrow it actually splits into two, including

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Speaker 1: one interest rate setting board. Now that might play into

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Speaker 1: the decision. All in all, people do think there's going

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Speaker 1: to be an interest rate cut tomorrow, but you may

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Speaker 1: not want to bet your life on it. On to

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Speaker 1: story number two. Now you get the sense that we

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Speaker 1: are getting closer to an election. Opposition leader Peter Dutton

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Speaker 1: has been out over the weekend threatening to break up

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Speaker 1: the country's biggest insurers, claiming a lack of competition in

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Speaker 1: the market is making policies more expensive for consumers. He's

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Speaker 1: previously referred to the potential of the break up the

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Speaker 1: big supermarket chains over competition concerns. The Coalition is promising

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Speaker 1: to create further divestiture powers. And yesterday mister Dutton was

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Speaker 1: telling Sky News that we need depth in the insurance

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Speaker 1: pool and we need to make sure that we are

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Speaker 1: not being ripped off by insurance companies.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Michael. And also in federal politics, the government has

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Speaker 2: reached a deal to send violent non citizen criminals to Naharu.

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Speaker 2: A landmark High Court ruling in twenty twenty three determined

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Speaker 2: that two hundred and twenty people who had broken laws

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Speaker 2: and failed the character test but couldn't be resettled in

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Speaker 2: their home nation could not be held indefinitely. Labour has

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Speaker 2: been searching for a solution, saying it would pay third

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Speaker 2: party countries to take some of those affected by the ruling.

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Speaker 2: The first three ex detainees, including one murderer, will now

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Speaker 2: be sent to Naru within weeks, having been granted thirty

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Speaker 2: year visas by the island nation. The government hopes that

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Speaker 2: more will then follow.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. It is a bit early to tell

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Speaker 1: how the capital city housing market is going to perform

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Speaker 1: this year, knowing it wasn't so flashed last year at

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Speaker 1: least in Sydney Melbourne about Canberra, but Adam the regional

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Speaker 1: property market is doing pretty well. In the three months

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Speaker 1: to the end of January, almost three quarters of suburbs

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Speaker 1: in Regional Australia reported house price rises. In the capital

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Speaker 1: cities almost half recorded declines.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Michael, the regions are showing much more resilience and

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Speaker 2: this is according to the core logic data. There are

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Speaker 2: a few reasons for this. Homes in Regional and Australia

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Speaker 2: are cheaper to begin with, so affordability is greater. Also,

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Speaker 2: the competition in towns and small cities in the auction

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Speaker 2: market is not as hot. Core Logic economist Caitlin Ezi

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Speaker 2: also talks about a second wind in regional internal migration,

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Speaker 2: and this is from two fold reasons. More people are

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Speaker 2: moving away from capital cities and people in the regions

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Speaker 2: are staying there. She says, hybrid working and working from

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Speaker 2: home are here to stay, and people are prioritizing lifestyle

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Speaker 2: over work. As a result, demand levels in the regions

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Speaker 2: have settled at a point higher than pre COVID levels.

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Speaker 1: A story number four. Turning to international news, adam US

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Speaker 1: Vice president jd Vance has stunned Europe with a speech

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Speaker 1: that criticized leaders for undermining democratic values and free speech.

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Speaker 1: Leaders were gathered in Munich, expecting apparently to hear the

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Speaker 1: Trump administration's plans for ending the war in Ukraine of

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Speaker 1: for dealing with the threats the broader threat of Russia,

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Speaker 1: but instead, Vice President Vance argued that Europe's primary threat

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Speaker 1: is internal, stemming from a retreat from fundamental values, rather

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Speaker 1: than from external actors like Russia or China.

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Speaker 2: Yeah Micha Lee called on Germany in particular to drop

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Speaker 2: their objections to working with a party that has often

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Speaker 2: used banned Nazi slogans, saying there is no room for firewalls.

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Speaker 2: In response, German Chancellor Oliv Schultz defended his stance against

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Speaker 2: the far right and said his country will not accept

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Speaker 2: people who intervene in our democracy.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five, I love this story.

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Speaker 2: Adam.

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Speaker 1: China will launch a network of silver trains for elderly

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Speaker 1: tourists as part of a plan to unleash the spending

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Speaker 1: power of one of the world's fastest aging populations. And

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Speaker 1: official action plan released this week outlines the need for

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Speaker 1: trains to be outfitted with medical and old age services.

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Speaker 1: According to the Financial Times, by twenty twenty seven, a

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Speaker 1: network of such trains could cover the entire country.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Michael. China's aging population poses a profound long term

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Speaker 2: challenge to the world's second largest economy. Twenty percent of

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Speaker 2: the population is over sixty years of age, authority said

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Speaker 2: Silver tourist trains or an important part of promoting service consumption.

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Speaker 2: The government says the Silver economy is worth around US

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Speaker 2: one trillion dollars annually. China's retirement age is also among

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Speaker 2: the earliest in the world, at sixty for men and

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Speaker 2: fifty five for women, though policymakers last year outline plans

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Speaker 2: to raise it gradually. State backed broadcast as CCTV is

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Speaker 2: running segments showing elderly passengers on trains, dancing and playing marjong.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go, the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you, Adam, Thank you Michael. It

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Speaker 1: is Monday, the seventeenth of February twenty twenty five. Remember

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Speaker 1: to hit follow on the podcast and five minutes isn't enough.

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Speaker 1: You can find our long a daily show called Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and that was the fast by Business News by Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed. Have a great day, m