Westpac bets big on economic recovery
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Westpac Banking Corporation has delivered a massive vote of confidence in the national recovery by promising to pay shareholders $2 billion in dividends, invest up to $4 billion over three years and release funds set aside to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bank has also upgraded its key economic forecasts for growth, unemployment and residential property prices used to model the fallout from bad debts, allowing it to release $372 million of its buffer, lifting its profit and supporting the reinstatement of the interim dividend.
Westpac CEO Peter King: âThere are more people employed now than pre-COVID.âÂ
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âChina is motoring aheadâ: Australian mining giants ride Beijingâs cash splash
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This time last year, when coronavirus cases started sweeping the world, Rio Tintoâs Jakob Stausholm was doing the same thing as most other chief financial officers of big global businesses: steeling himself for a period of economic disruption.
China, which consumes half of the worldâs metals, had been plunged into lockdown â halting industrial activity, casting a cloud over demand for Australiaâs commodity exports. Copper prices crashed 20 per cent. Iron ore, which makes up the bulk of Rioâs earnings, began losing ground.
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