M2 expanded in June
Banks' lending and investment rose last month for the first time in almost two years, helping expand the nation's money supply at the fastest pace since January, the central bank said.
Total loans and investments by major financial institutions rose 1.8 percent from a year earlier, the first increase since August 2001, the central bank said in a statement.
M2, the broadest measure of the money supply, grew 2.9 percent after expanding 2.6 percent in May.
M1B money supply rose 9.2 percent last month after increasing 7.1 percent in May.
M1A, which tracks net currency in circulation plus checking accounts and passbook deposits, grew 6.6 percent after expanding 7.3 percent the previous month, today's report showed.
Foreign investment in the nation's stocks and increased trade receipts also helped boost M2 last month, the central bank said.
Cathay Financial's Q2 profit up
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation's biggest financial services company, indicated net income in the second quarter surged more than 13-fold following its acquisition of the country's 11th-biggest bank by assets.
Profit rose to NT$6.5 billion (US$189 million) from NT$486 million in the year-earlier quarter, according to figures Bloomberg News derived by subtracting first-quarter results from the first-half figures Cathay Financial reported in an e-mailed statement.
The company didn't elaborate.
Showa Denko to ally with Trace
Showa Denko K.K., a Japanese aluminum smelter and maker of plastics and resins, said Thursday that it will ally with closely held Taiwan's Trace Storage Technol-ogy Corp (和喬科技) to expand production of hard disks for computers, consumer audiovisual equipment and car navigators.
The company also said that it will increase production capacity for its hard disks.
It has developed a flexible solar panel that may be used for recharging portable consumer electronics equipment, AFX-Asia reported yesterday.
Windance complex opens
A shopping-entertainment complex styled the largest in Asia opened in Hsinchu yesterday.
The Windance complex (風城購物中心), comprising 12 storeys above ground and five basement floors, is home to some 120 specialty shops, 15 restaurants, two department stores, a movie theater, indoor amusement park and five-star hotel.
Citing a survey by a local public relations agency, Windance officials said the complex, with a total floor area of 362,321m2, is the largest of its kind in Asia.
Most of the facilities are open with the exception of the movie theater, amusement park and hotel, which will have to wait until later this year.
NT dollar slips
The NT dollar dipped against the US dollar yesterday, falling NT$0.007 to NT$34.405. Turnover totalled US$260 million.
However, the NT dollar was poised for its first winning week in three after overseas investor purchases of the nation stocks boosted speculation of rising demand for the currency.
Foreign money managers bought NT$7.8 billion (US$227 million) more of stocks than they sold this week through Thursday, according to Bloomberg data.
"Relatively high demand for Taiwan's stocks from overseas investors strengthened the Tai-wan dollar,'' said Gary Huang, a foreign-exchange trader at Union Bank of Taiwan.
Huang correctly forecast a decline in the currency on May 29.
Gains were limited by concern the central bank will sell its currency to protect exporters.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last