Australia news LIVE: Biden welcomes PM to White House for state visit; Australian households taking on more financial risk

Here are images showing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s state visit to the US, after he and his partner Jodie Haydon arrived in the country on Sunday.

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Crown Resorts recorded a $199 million loss last financial year as the cost of remediation, financial penalties and improved compliance measures at its casinos combined with the cost of living crunch to wipe out its profits for a third year in a row.

The result —revealed in documents uploaded to the financial regulator late on Wednesday — is a significant improvement on the near $1 billion loss in the COVID-19-affected year prior, when the Blackstone-owned casino giant was hit with multiple financial penalties and undertook an expensive compliance overhaul following historic anti-money laundering and counterterrorism failings.

A Crown spokesperson said the result was reflective of the broader challenges the hospitality industry faced.

“During the year, Crown has made considerable progress on its remediation and transformation plan, which has resulted in a significant uplift to the operations and culture of the business,” she said.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon have joined US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill for the formal state dinner.

Other attendees include Australian rapper Kid Laroi, but Barbie star Margot Robbie was not spotted among the guests.

Her name was on the guest list until her work made it impossible for her to attend.

Electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi has reported a 12.2 per cent drop in sales at its home appliance business The Good Guys for the first quarter of 2024, in a sign that whitegoods purchases are out of favour as consumers weigh the possibility of further rate hikes.

JB Hi-Fi shared a trading update before its annual general meeting on Thursday morning, revealing that comparable group sales at its Australian stores were down by 1.4 per cent for the first quarter of the 2024 year.

Comparable sales at The Good Guys were 12.2 per cent weaker than the same time last year, though the company said the figures were in line with its expectations.

In a speech to the company’s meeting today, JB Hi-Fi boss Terry Smart will tell investors that the company’s focus on the lowest price should help attract shoppers despite tough trading conditions.

“With the heightened uncertainty in the retail environment, our brands remain well positioned to leverage their low-price market position as shoppers look to maximise value from their purchases,” he said.

Shares closed at $44.10 yesterday, and were up by 4.75 per cent for the year before the market open today.

In a speech on Tuesday night, before the inflation data was released, Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock said the bank “would not hesitate” to raise interest rates again if there was a material increase in the inflation outlook.

Yesterday’s inflation figures — which showed quarterly inflation had risen by 1.2 per cent — were higher than expected, and some economists believe that is enough to evidence needed for the RBA board to raise rates next month.

At Senate estimates this morning, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg asked Bullock whether the quarterly increase in inflation was a material change.

“We’re still analysing the number — I’m not prepared to say yet whether or not it’s a material change to our forecast, because there is going to be changed by our forecasts,” she said.

“We have to look at whether or not it’s material enough to change our views on.”

The RBA board took interest rates from 0.1 per cent in April last year to 4.1 per cent by June, but has held the cash rate steady for the past four months.

The next board meeting is on November 7.

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock says there’s no evidence that businesses are price gouging customers, or adding to inflation through profiteering.

Greens senator Nick McKim asked Bullock whether corporate price gouging was playing a role in driving inflation in Australia, and Bullock said it was good to take a step back and ask whether demand was strong enough to allow businesses to pass on large price increases.

In the mining sector, Bullock said demand has been strong, so that sector has been able to pass on price rises.

“... When cost increases have come through to businesses, they’ve been able to pass them on and maintain their margins. I think the evidence is that they’re maintaining margins rather than increasing their margins,” she said.

“So the question is, how much can we slow demand, which puts pressure on businesses so that they can’t necessarily maintain their margins.”

McKim asked: “Would it be your proposition that that corporate profiteering of price gouging is playing no role at all in driving inflation in Australia?”

Bullock said that overall, the evidence was that businesses had maintained their profit margins.

“Demand is such that it’s allowing them to maintain their margins,” she said.

“Now, you might be able to find particular firms or particular industries where it’s such that they are able to increase their margins [and] more than pass on the costs.“But in aggregate, the evidence is that that’s not happening … The evidence is that profit margins here have not widened.”

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock says the federal government’s decision to save most of its record surplus was the right economic call.

Asked by Liberal senator Jane Hume in Senate estimates this morning what action she would like to see from the government to slow the economy and help reduce inflation, Bullock said what they were doing was plenty.

“I actually think that what they’re doing at the moment is good enough,” she said, adding government decisions and actions were taken into account in the central bank’s forecasts.

“The decision has been made to basically bank the revenues, and I think that’s pretty positive.”

Last month Treasurer Jim Chalmers reported a record $22.1 billion surplus for the last financial year, as the government’s tax revenues were boosted by strong commodity prices and high inflation.

Chalmers told reporters yesterday that the government remained focused on a strict approach to fiscal discipline.

Returning to the RBA governor Michele Bullock, who has been questioned at Senate estimates this morning about interest rates.

The bank started raising interest rates last year in a bid to tackle high inflation, which peaked at 7.8 per cent in December. Annual inflation has fallen since then, reaching 5.4 per cent in September.

But the bank’s target for inflation is 2-3 per cent, and the RBA’s forecasts currently have inflation reaching the top of that range by the end of 2025.

Liberal senator Jane Hume pointed out the bank has continually pushed that forecast out, asking what Bullock meant by saying she had a “low tolerance” for high inflation, given the extended timeline for reaching a normal level.

Bullock said: “All I was trying to convey, really, was the same thing we’ve been conveying all along, which is the longer that inflation remains outside the target, the more likely it is that inflation expectations might adjust to that.

“But we’ve judged that on balance, we think we can manage to slow the economy enough without actually putting it in a recession and an unnecessary increase in unemployment, and that if we can do it in that timeframe, we think that we can get it back, and we can keep inflation expectations under control.

“When I say low tolerance, we’ve always said we have a low tolerance. I don’t think I’ve seen anything new there.”

Bullock said the bank was updating its forecasts, which would be released the week after the board meeting next month.

“When we go through our process of looking at our forecasts after the most recent news, we’ll again be making a judgment about how long do we think we can stay outside the band in thinking about what our monetary policy should be,” she said.