Japan’s corporate bankruptcies rose 13.4 percent last month as the fallout from the global credit- market turmoil engulfed the world’s second-largest economy.
Business failures climbed to 1,429 cases last month from the same month a year earlier, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd said in a report in Tokyo yesterday. The rate of increase eased from September’s 34 percent, which was the steepest in eight years.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said last month that increasing bankruptcies in the property industry were making it costlier for some companies to borrow, further stifling economic growth.
The bank lowered its benchmark interest rate to 0.3 percent from 0.5 percent last month, the first cut in seven years, to stave off a prolonged recession.
“We expect Japan’s economy to barely expand” both in the year ending March 31 and the next, said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd in Tokyo. “Growth will remain pretty weak for the time being.”
Developers in Japan are among the hardest hit by the financial turmoil as foreign investors withdraw from the market, banks cut lending and the slowing economy dampens demand for homes. Six of seven listed companies that went out of business last month were real estate-related firms, and fallout from the industry’s slump is spreading to the overall economy.
GDP probably expanded at an annual 0.1 percent pace in the three months ended Sept. 30 after contracting 3 percent in the second quarter, the median estimate of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News showed.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
RSS