Received

Details: Written by Grant Broadcasters; Category: Received; Published: 07 February 2023; Hits: 73

A huge earthquake has killed more than 3700 people across a swathe of Turkey and northwest Syria, with freezing winter weather adding to the plight of the thousands left injured or homeless and hampering efforts to find survivors.

The magnitude 7.8 quake on Monday brought down whole apartment blocks in Turkish cities and piled more devastation on millions of Syrians displaced by years of war.

It struck before sunrise in harsh weather and was followed in the early afternoon by another large quake.

In Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey, a woman speaking next to the wreckage of the seven-storey block where she lived said: "We were shaken like a cradle. There were nine of us at home. Two sons of mine are still in the rubble, I'm waiting for them."

She was nursing a broken arm and had injuries to her face.

"It was like the apocalypse," said Abdul Salam al-Mahmoud, a Syrian in the northern town of Atareb. "It's bitterly cold and there's heavy rain, and people need saving."

The earthquake was the biggest recorded worldwide by the US Geological Survey since a tremor in the remote South Atlantic in August 2021.

In Turkey, the death toll stood at 2316, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said, making it the country's deadliest earthquake since a tremor of similar magnitude in 1999 devastated the heavily populated eastern Marmara Sea region near Istanbul, killing more than 17,000.

At least 1444 people were killed in Syria in Monday's quake and about 3500 injured, according to figures from the Damascus government and rescue workers in the northwestern region controlled by insurgents.

Poor internet connections and damaged roads between some of the worst-hit cities in Turkey's south, homes to millions of people, hindered efforts to assess and address the impact.

Temperatures in some areas were expected to fall to near freezing overnight, worsening conditions for people trapped under rubble or left homeless. Rain fell on Monday after snowstorms swept the country at the weekend.

More than 13,000 people were injured in Turkey from the quake.

In the Turkish city of Iskenderun, rescuers climbed an enormous pile of debris that was once part of a state hospital's intensive care unit in search of survivors. Health workers did what they could to tend to the new rush of injured patients.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, preparing for a tough election in May, called the quake a historic disaster and the worst earthquake to hit the country since 1939, but said authorities were doing all they could.

"Everyone is putting their heart and soul into efforts although the winter season, cold weather and the earthquake happening during the night makes things more difficult," he said.

Erdogan said 45 countries had offered to help the search and rescue efforts in Turkey.

The second quake was big enough to bring down more buildings and, like the first, was felt across the region, endangering rescuers struggling to pull casualties from the rubble.

In Syria, already wrecked by more than 11 years of civil war, the health ministry said 711 people had been killed. In the Syrian rebel-held northwest emergency workers said 733 people had died.

The United Nations says 4.1 million people, many of them displaced by the conflict and living in camps, depend already on cross-border humanitarian aid in northwest Syria and international support efforts are stretched and underfunded.

"Syrian communities are simultaneously hit with an ongoing cholera outbreak and harsh winter events including heavy rain and snow over the weekend," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

In the government-controlled city of Aleppo, footage on Twitter showed two neighbouring buildings collapsing one after the other, filling streets with billowing dust.

Two residents of the city, which has been heavily damaged in the war, said the buildings had fallen in the hours after the quake, which was felt as far away as Cyprus and Lebanon.

Syrian state television showed rescue teams searching for survivors in heavy rain and sleet. President Bashar al-Assad held an emergency cabinet meeting to review the damage and discuss next steps, his office said.

Details: Written by Grant Broadcasters; Category: Received; Published: 07 February 2023; Hits: 92

The Reserve Bank is expected to take the cash rate to its highest point in over a decade, as its past hikes start to bite households.

The RBA board is widely anticipated to announce a 25 basis point rise when it meets on Tuesday, taking the cash rate to 3.35 per cent.

RateCity says this will mean an extra $908 a month in total for the average borrower with a $500,000 loan, since the start of the hikes last May.

For a $750,000 loan, Tuesday's expected rate increase will mean an extra $114 a month or $1362 since the RBA started lifting rates in May.

Commonwealth Bank is forecasting no further hikes, while Westpac and ANZ expect three over 2023.

It would be the ninth rise in as many meetings, taking the cash rate to its highest level since September 2012.

Borrowers are being encouraged to do a "stress test" on their loans, using online comparison tools.

The RBA is seeking to use rate rises to put a lid on inflation, which at 7.8 per cent is the highest it has been since 1990.

"The determination to bring the inflation rate back into the two to three per cent target band shouldn't be doubted," CommSec's Craig James said.

Economists have noted some slowing in spending, with retail sales volumes falling 0.2 per cent over the quarter.

However, Mr James said the softening in the retail sector was unlikely to stop the rate hike, with a strong jobs market and higher migration to support spending over the year.

Equifax also reported a drop-off in mortgage demand, down 16.1 per cent in the final quarter of last year, influenced by rate hikes and the rising cost of living.

The agency is also seeing consumers turning to credit cards to help pay bills and buy services such as travel, up 21 per cent in demand in the December quarter.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government was dealing with global and domestic pressures on inflation, which was starting to moderate but remained "unacceptably high".

He noted the government was delivering cheaper early childhood education and medicines, and was working on electricity bill relief, as well as showing spending restraint in the federal budget.

However Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the government had to foot the blame for political decisions which had increased pressure on the RBA and would ultimately make life harder for families.

"World events always influence interest rates and the RBA takes that into consideration and always has," he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

"The fact is, though, this government has made decisions which have put upward pressure on interest rates including, for example, in relation to industrial relations."

Details: Written by Grant Broadcasters; Category: Received; Published: 07 February 2023; Hits: 88

Australia's trade surplus fell $1.24 billion in December to $12.24 billion on the back of a rise in travel services.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday imports had risen by $445 million while exports had fallen by $793 million, driven by "other mineral fuels".

Rural goods exports were down $250 million, largely relating to a drop in cereal grains and cereal preparations.

The figures come as the Reserve Bank is expected to take the cash rate to its highest point in more than a decade as its past hikes start to bite households.

The RBA board is widely expected to announce a 25 basis point rise when it meets on Tuesday, taking the cash rate to 3.35 per cent.

RateCity says this will mean an extra $908 a month in total for the average borrower with a $500,000 loan since the start of the hikes last May.