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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the sixteenth of October twenty twenty five. Welcome

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

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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 in just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and Good morning, Sean Aylmer, Good morning, Michael Shawn. Five

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Speaker 1: stories in just five minutes. So let's go a story

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Speaker 1: number one. The Australian economy speed limit has fallen to

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Speaker 1: about two percent per year as a result of slowing productivity,

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Speaker 1: and wages can only grow at three point two percent

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Speaker 1: annually without pushing up inflation.

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Speaker 2: The estimates from Reserve Bank Chief economist Sarah Hunter came

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Speaker 2: in a speech yesterday in which he also said inflation

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Speaker 2: could be higher than first thought, which is a blow

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Speaker 2: to hopes for further rate cuts. Hanta said productivity growth

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Speaker 2: is the determinant of sustainable real wages growth. You don't

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Speaker 2: have it, you end up with higher wages causing inflation.

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Speaker 2: A speed limit in an economy is what's allowable without

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Speaker 2: triggering inflation. Over the longer term, Australia's economy has grown

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Speaker 2: more about two and a half percent, bit above that,

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Speaker 2: and the nomination of a number by Hunter high while

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Speaker 2: that's just how damaging slow productivity is the economy. She

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Speaker 2: said the productivity growth in Australia had slowed since the

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Speaker 2: mid two thousands, more so than other places like the US,

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Speaker 2: UK and European Union. She blamed below business investment, the

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Speaker 2: slow integration of new technology, and the growth in the

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Speaker 2: non market sector. Sectors with the highest productivity rates over

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Speaker 2: that period information media, AG and professional services, lowest mining

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Speaker 2: utilities in manufacturing is artificial intelligence.

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Speaker 1: The savior here, Sean Well. AI sold Australia's productivity challenges.

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Speaker 1: A lot of analysts suggests that's the case.

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Speaker 2: Theoretically it should, but Hunter has a big note of caution.

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Speaker 2: It will take time for AI to emerge and disrupt.

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Speaker 2: It isn't something that takes three six months. It will

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Speaker 2: take much longer, could well be a number of years. Therefore,

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Speaker 2: we can't rely on it. The Reserve Bank, in fact,

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Speaker 2: is forecasting productivity of just zero point seven percent a

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Speaker 2: year in the near term. That means productivity isn't going

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Speaker 2: to stop inflation pressures. It's not going to be a

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Speaker 2: reason for the Reserve Bank to cut anytime soon. It's

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Speaker 2: also Michael Way interest rates on mortgages aren't going back

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Speaker 2: to where they were a couple of years ago. I reckon,

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Speaker 2: whatever you're paying on your mortgage today is about close

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Speaker 2: to the new norm.

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Speaker 1: Okay, moving on to story number two. Now Australia has

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Speaker 1: less than one month's worth of jet fuel, petrol and

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Speaker 1: diesel in storage, and so only country Sean failing to

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Speaker 1: meets its international treaty obligations to have enough oil in

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Speaker 1: case of a global emergency.

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Speaker 2: It means Australia may be unable to stock supermarket and

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Speaker 2: pharmacy shells, for example, or operate freight between states in

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Speaker 2: the event of a severe global supply chain disruption. We

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Speaker 2: had one during COVID. Australia had oil stores equipment to

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Speaker 2: just forty nine days worth of net imports as at

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Speaker 2: July twenty twenty five, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy,

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Speaker 2: the Environment and Water and reported in the fin Review.

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Speaker 2: Based on normal consumption rates, the Department estimated Australia had

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Speaker 2: just twenty days of jet fuel, twenty four days of diesel,

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Speaker 2: twenty eight days of petrol supplies. Now it is not

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Speaker 2: actually that unusual duel. The figure in July was close

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Speaker 2: to record low levels. Reached in twenty seventeen, but it

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Speaker 2: is far beneath the ninety day requirement under a global

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Speaker 2: treaty signed with the International Energy Agency in nineteen seventy four.

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Speaker 1: Sean Story number three, Gold has hit yet another record,

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Speaker 1: boosted by an escalation in US China frictions and bets

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Speaker 1: that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates twice more

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Speaker 1: this year.

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Speaker 2: Yes bullion hit one hundred and eighty five US dollars

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Speaker 2: announce Yesterday, spots silver hit another all time record. Remember

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Speaker 2: twenty four hours ago we were talking about silver hitting

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Speaker 2: an all time high from nineteen eighty Well, it went

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Speaker 2: even higher yesterday. The question is is goldworth buying? JP

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Speaker 2: Morgan chief executive Jamie Diamond, who's sort of the guru

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Speaker 2: of Wall Street bankers. He said it's semi rational to

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Speaker 2: own gold. He basically said it could easily go to

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Speaker 2: ten thousand US dollars announce in an environment like this.

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Speaker 2: I think the little hyperbole in that, but clearly he

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Speaker 2: thinks it can go higher.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, Story number four, more than one million American Express

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Speaker 1: cardholders in Australia maybe at risk of privacy breaches, fraud

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Speaker 1: and identity theft due to systemic failures in the company's

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Speaker 1: security controls.

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Speaker 2: Nine media newspapers are reporting the risk after obtaining a

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Speaker 2: confidential report by Australia's privacy watchdog, the Office of the

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Speaker 2: Australian Information Commissioner. The Privacy watchdog began investigating MS after

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Speaker 2: an employee accessed his ex partner's financial transactions. MX disputs

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Speaker 2: the findings of the report important to keep that in context,

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Speaker 2: but the report does claim that the financial giant breached

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Speaker 2: privacy laws, acted unreasonably, gave misleading information during regular to investigations,

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Speaker 2: and has gaping holes in its technology security that require

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Speaker 2: immediate fixing. The commission reportedly found that AMES was not

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Speaker 2: tracking the access of employees customer accounts in seventy eight

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Speaker 2: percent of its systems.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five, Donald Trump is overseeing a

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Speaker 1: renewable energy boom, despite doing everything he can to roll

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Speaker 1: back clan energy tax credits and throw up roadblocks to

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Speaker 1: renewable energy projects.

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Speaker 2: In the long run, it will mean fewer wind and

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Speaker 2: solar farms will built than otherwise. But right now there's

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Speaker 2: a boom going on. That's because companies are racing to

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Speaker 2: install solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. The size of

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Speaker 2: shipping containers before federal tax credits expire will become harder

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Speaker 2: to claim. The pipeline is so big that analysts widely

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Speaker 2: expect the US to add record or near record amounts

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Speaker 2: of renewable energy and batteries through twenty twenty seven, according

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Speaker 2: to The New York Times. In fact, the research firm

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg and nef recently raised its forecast for how much wind, solar,

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Speaker 2: and batteries the country would add next year by more

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Speaker 2: than ten percent. Ohe the irony Donald Trump triggering a

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Speaker 2: renewables boom.

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

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Speaker 1: stories in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Thursday, the sixteenth of October twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Remember to hit follow on the podcast, and if five

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Speaker 1: minutes isn't enough, you can find our longer daily show

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Speaker 1: called Fear and Greed where if you listen to podcasts,

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and that was the fast five Business

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Speaker 1: NEWSBRK and great, have a great day,