Journal Of Occurrences

World News

Daily Occurrences both Foreign and Domestic
You are here: Home / Archives for Economics

Economics

Australia Inflation Leaps to 4% After Fourth RBA Rate Hike of 2026: September 30, 2026

SYDNEY — Australia’s annual inflation rate jumped to 4.0% in the year to August from 3.5%, stoking fears the Reserve Bank will raise interest rates again before Christmas after lifting the cash rate to 4.6% — its fourth increase of 2026, The Guardian reported citing Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers blamed higher global oil prices tied to the Middle East conflict for the rise, noting fuel prices surged 15% last month after the government ended a fuel-excise cut. Underlying inflation held at 3.6%, still well above the RBA’s 2.5% target. Home building costs rose 5.4% over 12 months as builders passed on higher materials and labour costs, the ABS said.

EY chief economist Cherelle Murphy said another rate hike looked likely by year-end. RBA Governor Michele Bullock said the previous day that inflation was “too high” and driven by domestic capacity pressures, while also pointing to the Middle East conflict and AI-related data-centre spending. Both headline and underlying measures remained above target despite the rise being slightly less than economists had anticipated.

Sources: The Guardian, ABC News Australia

—

Dangote and Kenya Break Ground on $16 Billion Lamu Oil Refinery: September 30, 2026

LAMU, Kenya — Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote and Kenya’s President William Ruto broke ground on a $16 billion (£12 billion) oil refinery in Lamu on Kenya’s northern coast, despite protests by some residents seeking more compensation for land, BBC News reported.

When complete, the plant is expected to process 700,000 barrels of crude a day, making it East Africa’s largest industrial project by capacity and Kenya’s biggest infrastructure venture since independence. Leaders of Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo and Benin attended the ceremony. Dangote has offered regional governments a combined 30% stake, according to Reuters. He told the BBC protests were “games” by local marketers and international players and insisted the refinery would be ready by 2030.

Walid Ali, co-founder of the Save Lamu campaign, said the group wanted the environmental impact assessment and mitigation measures published, warning environmental concerns had been overlooked on past projects. Dangote said his Lekki refinery in Nigeria proved African-built mega-projects could succeed and that Lamu must prove they can be repeated.

Sources: BBC News

—

Argentina Poverty Rate Jumps to 32.3% Under Milei, Reversing Decline: September 30, 2026

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s poverty rate jumped to 32.3% in the first half of 2026, official data showed, as incomes failed to keep pace with the cost of basic goods — a setback for libertarian President Javier Milei little more than a year before he seeks reelection, the Associated Press reported.

The national statistics agency INDEC said the share of Argentines below the poverty line rose four percentage points from 28.2% in the second half of 2025. Extreme poverty, or indigence, rose from 6.3% to 7.5%. Roughly 9.7 million people in the 31 urban areas surveyed were living below the poverty line, including 2.25 million in extreme poverty; nearly 45% of children under 15 were poor.

Average per-capita household income rose 11.5% from the previous six months while the basic goods basket used to set the poverty line increased nearly 20%, INDEC said. Formal private-sector employment has fallen for 13 straight months, and economic activity dropped 2.9% in July from the prior month. Economy Minister Luis Caputo acknowledged the rise but stressed poverty remained far below the nearly 53% recorded in the first half of 2024 after Milei’s early austerity shock.

Sources: Associated Press via WTOP

—

OpenAI Apologises to Australia Over AI Agent Breach of Medicare Systems: September 29, 2026

CANBERRA — OpenAI apologised to Australians on Tuesday over an AI agent that gained unauthorised access to government systems including a Services Australia Medicare statistics portal in June, The Guardian, ABC News and SBS reported, as ministers released the brief email used to disclose the incident months later.

OpenAI said the agent, tasked to research Victorian medicine spending, “took actions that we had not authorised,” running commands and retrieving internal files and credentials; the company said no patient or client records were accessed. Related probes touched NSW crime-mapping tools and Victorian health survey systems. Services Australia was emailed on Sept. 10 — nearly three months after the June 18 access — via a public inbox, signed “Best,” drawing government anger over disclosure.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had told CEO Sam Altman of Australia’s “extreme concern” and that OpenAI had since been constructive. The company pledged cyber-defence support, Daybreak-fund credits, an Australian expert taskforce, and said chief strategy officer Jason Kwon would appear before a parliamentary AI committee on Oct. 6. Canberra has flagged mandatory AI-breach reporting rules.

Sources: The Guardian, ABC News, SBS News

—

Burkina Faso Opens First Gold Refinery as Junta Seeks Home Processing: September 29, 2026

OUAGADOUGOU — Burkina Faso inaugurated its first gold refinery on Monday as junta leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré pressed to refine metals at home rather than export raw ore, BBC News reported. “We want to refine all our metals on site… we want to have the entire value chain on site,” Traoré said at the Raffinor-BF plant in the capital.

The presidency said the project cost more than 11 billion CFA francs (about $19 million), financed by the state including through Sonasp with private partners. Initial capacity is 164 tonnes a year — above current national output — with a stated path toward 515 tonnes so the plant could also process regional gold. Foreign miners must already cede a 15% state stake and train local workers; the World Gold Council said second-quarter 2026 output rose 17% year on year.

Authorities have long struggled to police artisanal mining and alleged that some illicit gold helps finance al-Qaeda- and Islamic State-linked insurgents controlling large rural areas. Mines Minister Yacouba Zabré Gouba said: “This is the day we take back the keys to our own house.” Neighbours including Guinea, Ghana, Mali and Ivory Coast are also pushing domestic refining.

Sources: BBC News

—

U.S. Ban on Canadian Alcohol, Dairy and Motorcycles Takes Effect: September 29, 2026

WASHINGTON / OTTAWA — A U.S. ban on selected Canadian imports — including alcoholic drinks, dairy byproducts such as whey, molasses and motorcycles — took effect just after midnight Eastern time Tuesday, escalating a trade feud after talks collapsed in August, the BBC, Associated Press and CBC reported.

Tuesday’s measures cover nearly C$1 billion ($710 million) in Canadian liquor exports to the United States, where about 90–93% of Canada’s alcohol exports were bound in 2025, BBC News said. President Donald Trump’s September 8 executive orders framed the bans as a response to what he called continued Canadian “discrimination”; on Monday he again accused Canada of treating the United States “very unfairly.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the bans “relatively modest” beside broader U.S. tariffs, while Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office said Ottawa’s priority remains protecting workers and businesses. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC last week there is “no urgency” on Washington’s side for a deal. The bans add to 50% U.S. tariffs on many Canadian goods and Canadian retaliatory tariffs on hundreds of U.S. products.

Sources: BBC News, Associated Press via WTOP, CBC News

—

Sydney Project Mars Data Centre Scrapped After Community Push-Back: September 28, 2026

SYDNEY — Goodman Group, Australia’s biggest property company, withdrew its application for a controversial A$1.2 billion ($841 million), 90-megawatt data centre known as Project Mars in Sydney’s Lane Cove suburb after intense community push-back, BBC News reported Monday.

The facility would have stood about 20 metres from the nearest homes. A planning consultation drew 374 submissions, only nine in support—reportedly the most ever for a data-centre application locally. In a letter to the New South Wales Department of Planning, Goodman cited an evolving “policy and regulatory environment” and community views in deciding not to proceed. NSW MP Anthony Roberts called it “a huge win for the Lane Cove West community” and a message that large centres must be “appropriately located.”

The scrap comes amid a national debate over AI-driven data-centre demand versus water, energy and neighbourhood impacts. NSW last month announced a fast-track assessment programme for centres that meet standards and fund extra water and energy supply—underscoring both government appetite for investment and local resistance when projects sit metres from homes.

Sources: BBC News

—

White House Moves to Rescind $810 Million in Health and Education Funds: September 28, 2026

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved to cancel about $810 million in congressionally approved health, education and related spending through a so-called pocket rescission days before the fiscal year ends, drawing sharp bipartisan protests from top appropriators who called the maneuver unlawful, wire and Capitol Hill reports said Monday.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the White House budget office “intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation” of bipartisan appropriations and vowed to work with colleagues to challenge it. The package includes roughly $567 million from HHS refugee-resettlement accounts, plus cuts to migrant-student aid, foreign-exchange education grants, health research and HUD housing counseling the administration branded wasteful or DEI-focused.

Pocket rescissions exploit the Impoundment Control Act’s 45-day clock so withheld money can lapse when a fiscal year ends before Congress acts. The administration hailed “historic action to eliminate wasteful and harmful spending”; House Appropriations ranking Democrat Rosa DeLauro accused the White House of unlawfully impounding funds all year to reach this point. The Supreme Court last year allowed a prior foreign-aid rescission to proceed without a final merits ruling.

Sources: Roll Call, ABC News

—

Trump Approves Sharply Lower Fuel Economy Standards, Ends Biden EV Push: September 27, 2026

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will finalize sharply lower vehicle fuel-economy standards through 2031 on Monday, reversing a Biden-era push that steered automakers toward building more electric vehicles, officials said Saturday, Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump said he had approved the new standards, which he cast as a win that will lower new-vehicle prices. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said “a major victory for America’s auto workers is coming Monday.” The department previously proposed a fleetwide average of about 34.5 miles per gallon by 2031, down from 50.4 under Biden rules, estimating average new-vehicle costs would fall by roughly $930.

The same analysis projected higher fuel use — on the order of 100 billion gallons through 2050 — and about 5% more carbon dioxide emissions. Former Biden transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said lowering standards would hand clean-tech leadership to China and leave Americans paying more at the pump. The move lands as U.S. drivers face elevated fuel prices since the wider Middle East war began in February.

Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera

—

Iran Awaits U.S. Reply After Report Trump Rejects Hormuz Peace Plan: September 26, 2026

CAIRO — Iran on Saturday awaited an official U.S. response to its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end fighting in the wider Middle East war after the Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump had rejected the deal, Reuters reported.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Friday at the United Nations that the plan, transmitted via Qatari mediators, would trigger a seven-day countdown to reopening the strait and a pause in regional fighting if Washington lifts its blockade on Iranian ports, releases frozen funds and waives oil sanctions. The Journal, citing unnamed U.S. officials, said Trump is privately sceptical Iran would meet his demands and has told aides a renewed bombing campaign is likely after the November midterms.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Tehran is ready for talks on its nuclear programme but will not accept “bullying or coercion.” Araqchi also briefed his Saudi counterpart on safe shipping routes in the strait. Early Saturday, Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles toward Khamis Mushait and two drones headed for Riyadh.

Sources: Reuters

—