Finance news you need to know today

TOYOTA has been forced to suspend production at plants across Japan this week after earthquakes in the country’s south led to a shortage of parts.

An employee at Toyota Motor Corporation's showroom polishes a Toyota logo on a vehicle in Tokyo, Japan 06/01/2009.

HERE are ten things making news in business and finance around the world today.

1. SYDNEY — The Australian dollar has plunged sharply as crude oil prices tumble. At 7am on Monday, the local unit was trading at 76.53 US cents, down from 77.23 cents on Friday.

2. SYDNEY — The Australian share market looks set to open flat after Wall Street fell as oil price declines weighed on energy shares and Apple dragged on the market. At 6.45 on Monday, the share price index was down four points at 5,142.

3. DOHA — A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell has fallen apart after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite calls on Riyadh to save the agreement and help prop up crude prices.

4. WASHINGTON — Financial leaders from the Group of 20 nations say they are heartened by a recent recovery in financial markets, but warn that global growth is “modest and uneven” and threatened by weakness in commodities-based economies.

5. WASHINGTON — US industrial production fell more than expected in March as manufacturing and mining production decreased, the latest indication that economic growth braked sharply in the first quarter.

6. SHANGHAI — China’s hedge fund operators can expect more stringent regulation from their self-regulatory industry body in an intensifying crackdown on fraud and illegal money raising, the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) says.

7. WASHINGTON — Greece must continue to implement reforms to put its towering debts on a sustainable path, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says.

8. ROME — Italy has gone to the polls for a referendum on offshore oil and gas drilling rights, a complex issue that the government hopes voters will shun.

9. TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s biggest-selling car maker, says it will suspend much of its production at plants across Japan this week after earthquakes in the country’s south led to a shortage of parts.

10. LONDON — A growing roster of developing states are turning to their compatriots abroad to raise cash by marketing “diaspora bonds”, a funding strategy successfully pioneered by India and Israel but sometimes tricky to imitate.