1、AUSTRALIA IN NEWSHard landing of Chinas economy will impact Australian economy The international ratings agency Standard & Poors recently warned that the hard landing of Chinese economy will bring about short-term impact to the Australian economy and improve the unemployment rate of Australia to 10%
2、 or so. Meanwhile， the commodity price will drop dramatically and the housing price is likely to drop 25% maximally. S&P issued two reports， forecasting Chinas economic growth rate to be 7.3% in 2014 and the middle-term bottom line for growth to be 6.8%. S&P said that the occurrence rate of the benc
3、hmark estimate is between 55% and 65%. However， this agency also thought that there is a 5% chance for the Chinese GDP growth rate to slow down to 5% in 2014. Then the hard landing happens， whose shockwave will spread to Australia， pulling its GDP growth rate down to 1%. Craig Michaels， credit analy
4、st of S&P， said that the impact will be a shortterm one， but the further progress of Chinas urbanization and industrialization is definitely going to allow Australia to use its massive resources to support the prosperity of China. Even though the commodity price is going to fall， the hard landing ov
5、er the Chinese economy， if any， will bring down the exchange rate of Australian dollars as well， reducing the stress of income of Australian companies whose profits are usually counted with US dollars. Therefore， the general influence depends on the balance between the two forces， which are the infl
6、uence on the US-dollar-based income from the drop in commodity price and sales volume， and the benefits of depreciation of Australian dollars. In order to ease the impact of the weakening demand of China for bulk commodities， the Australian central bank decided to lower its benchmark interest rate b
7、y 25 benchmark points to 2.5% ? the historical low ? after the conference of monetary policy on August 6. This was the eighth time that the central bank of Australia lowered the interest rate since November 2011. In the past ten years， Chinas economy has become the main driving force for the appreci
8、ation of Australian dollars. From 2001 to 2011， the average annual GDP growth rate of China was 10.4%. What an amazing speed. The great demand of China triggered the bull market of Australian dollars. Meanwhile， Australia has become the largest exporter of iron ores and coals for China. However， as
9、the Chinese economic growth apparently slowed down， especially as the China shifted its economic growth pattern from being investment-oriented to consumption-oriented， the country has a smaller demand for the iron ores and coals from Australia. The slower economic growth rate in China will render Au
10、stralian mining companies vulnerable to the dropping demand from China. The Australian government forecasts that the GDP growth rate of Australia is going to be only 2.5% in the financial year ending June 2014， lower than the expected 2.75% the government estimated in May. Australia to reduce the us
11、e of slang for the sake of immigrants The federal government of Australia has issued a rule of making immigrants get used to their new working environment more quickly. The native Australians are required to speak less strine and avoid the use of slang as much as possible. In addition， the bosses sh
12、ould stop calling migrants the “ethnic”， which might imply unfair treatment and rac- ism. They should use the more politically right word CALD， short for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse. The curse and condemnation should be avoided as much as possible， because they might contain the meaning of
13、 defiance and aggression. Though Australias premier Kevin Rudd prefers the ambiguous expression of Australian slang， the Department of Immigrants issued the new guideline not supporting this action. However， such a rule was heavily criticized by the business groups. An analyst said that this politic
14、ally right policy will turn out to be useless. It is known to everyone that the accent of Australia might confuse those non-Australian native English speakers. Therefore， Australian bosses and working class are required to speak slowly， clearly and simply to their foreign employees or colleagues. Th
15、e guideline is called the Harmony in the Workplace. It was compiled by the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia. Strangely the word Ethnic could be found in the name of the organization， but the organization explained that this word is an illogical word containing negative and disc
16、riminative meaning when it refers to a person. So in the guideline such a word is said to be an improper word for the migrants. The guideline said that the Australian culture might be alien towards the new migrants. Including the “Enda Everidge”，“pavlova”， fried chips and fishes， Australian football
17、， barbecue in summer and having a drink after work. It also tells the boss that migrants have the right to wear clothes of their own nations to work unless the dress might be dangerous to the employee or others. “If the face of your employee is masked， you can ask him/her to reveal face to identify him/herself.”
