Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the government will go ahead with promised tax cuts, even as inflation rises at the fastest pace in 16 years.
"There will be absolutely no change to people having tax cuts to take as additional income," Rudd said on the Nine TV network's Sunday program yesterday.
He said inflation remains the government's greatest challenge.
Australia's annual core inflation accelerated to 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the fastest since 1991. The central bank aims to keep price gains between 2 percent and 3 percent on average.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said he remained optimistic about the outlook for the Australian economy amid the highest borrowing costs in 11 years and concern the US is headed for recession.
"We do face substantial challenges but I think our growth prospects are very solid," Swan said yesterday on Channel Ten's Meet the Press program. "It's a very big inflation problem. We have to deal with it because inflation pushes up interest rates, erodes living standards and, in the end, inflation is a threat to growth."
The economy is showing few signs of cooling as rising consumer spending and exports to China help Australia ride out a global financial-market slump. It grew 4.3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace in three years. The Reserve Bank of Australia last week raised the overnight cash rate target to an 11-year high of 7 percent.
Swan said measures allowing customers to more easily switch banks will bolster competition in the sector and help keep borrowing costs lower.
"We have to really take the ax to public spending given the inflation problem that we've inherited," he said. "That will mean that we will go through the budget looking at all areas of the budget to make the savings that are absolutely essential if we're going to put downward pressure on inflation and downward pressure on interest rates."
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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