Slowdown cuts interest rates to record low

Labor has been forced to defend its stewardship of the economy after the Reserve Bank said weak growth was behind its decision to cut interest rates to the lowest level on record, according to The Australian.

Delivering the Reserve Bank's first mid-election campaign rate cut, governor Glenn Stevens said the nation's economy had been growing more slowly than its long-term trend rate over the past year.

“This is expected to continue in the near term as the economy adjusts to lower levels of mining investment. The unemployment rate has edged higher,” he said.

Water stress raises red flag for India's shale gas prospects

India’s chronic water shortage is likely to delay, if not derail, its hopes for a shale gas bonanza of the type that has revolutionised the North American energy scene since 2005, according to The Australian.

Drilling for shale is highly water-intensive, but India, like China, is depleting groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate, meaning many parts of the country are at extreme risk of water stress, according to global risk analyst Maplecroft.

It’s a ‘great’ time to make acquisitions, says Gold Fields

The head of South African miner Gold Fields’ Australian business says market conditions are ripe for acquisitions and the company has sufficient balance sheet capacity to pursue them, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Gold Fields has been tipped as a potential buyer of the Western Australian gold assets that Canadian major Barrick Gold has up for sale and Australian executive vice-president Richard Weston did nothing to dispel the speculation yesterday.

“I think there’s a great opportunity at present for acquisitions,” he told media at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie, adding that the company’s cash position was good and could support an asset purchase.

Gold Fields had R5.27 billion ($602 million) in cash at the end of the March quarter.