Australian Business News – Australian Financial Review

A short overview of the different business sectors in Australia and how this will affect Australia’s economy – which might affect jobs in Australia as well as Australian immigrants.

The head of Metcash’s grocery business, Silvestro Morabito, seems to be the front-runner in taking over next year from chief executive Andrew Reitzer. Mr. Morabito will head up with a new role as a COO of food and grocery.

On the electronics and music industry, the chief executive of electronics and music retailer JB Hi-Fi, Terry Smart, mentioned that online sales raised up by 85% after reducing their prices as part of their competition from other online rivals. The company is trying to mix their online services with their physical stores. A lot of people these days have been browsing the internet to search before going to stores. JB Hi-Fi is expecting a growth of their sales to around AU$200 million by 2015.

In the mining industry, BHP Billiton is feeling the pressure from falling domestic gas prices in the US after they had spent US$20 billion in acquiring shale gas assets in 2011. Their purchase of Chesapeake Energy’s Fayetteville assets in Arkansas and the taking over of Petrohawk Energy seems to be alright at the time, but currently there is a production issue that are affecting the gas prices. The mining industry in Australia is not yet clear in declaring their response but financial observers are expecting the company to focus on fields that are containing high levels of liquids as stated by theaustralian.news.com.au.

The chief executive of the mining giant Rio Tinto, Tom Albanese, was very hopeful that there will be progress in the European market and would continue to let the global economy  recover. He stated that the governments (all over the world) acknowledge they need to embrace the severity but even if on a slow pace, as long as they are taking appropriate measures which will definitely have an effect on the currency value on the Euro and the inflation in Europe.

More updates about the Australian market next week. Stay tuned to our weekly updates.