AUSTRALIA
Flood may drive food prices
Flooding in Queensland, Australia’s third-most populous state, could cut the value of farm production by as much as A$2.5 billion (US$2.49 billion) and drive food price inflation in coming quarters, National Australia Bank Ltd said yesterday. A jump of about 30 percent in the fruit and vegetable component of the consumer price index could be expected in the near term, the bank said in an e-mailed report, citing the example of gains in banana prices after Cyclone Larry destroyed banana crops in Queensland in 2006. The floods may add 0.75 percentage points to consumer prices in the quarter ending March, resulting in a quarterly CPI growth rate of 1.6 percent, it said.
INDIA
Anti-inflation moves made
India will import 1,000 tonnes of onions and keep a ban on exports of edible oil and lentils to slow inflation, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. The wholesale-price index rose 8.43 percent last month from a year earlier after a 7.48 percent gain in November, the statement said. The median forecast of 30 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an 8.4 percent rise. The arrival of onions, a key ingredient in local cuisine, from Pakistan will help check price gains, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao may join counterparts in South Korea and Thailand in raising borrowing costs this month to curb inflation.
ELECTRONICS
Toshiba to raise LCD sales
Toshiba Corp aims to double its share of the growing market for LCD televisions in the Middle East and Africa in the next three years after extending a joint venture in Egypt. The Japanese electronics maker is targeting a 20 percent market share by the fiscal year ending March 2014, compared with 9 percent now, spokesman Keisuke Ohmori said in a telephone interview. Toshiba yesterday signed an agreement with El Araby Group to sell TVs in the region through a venture between the two companies, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement.
GERMANY
Inflation hits two-year high
Inflation in Germany, Europe’s largest economy accelerated to the fastest pace in more than two years last month, led by higher energy costs. German inflation, calculated using a harmonized European method, increased to 1.9 percent from 1.6 percent in November, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said yesterday, confirming an initial estimate published on Dec. 29. That’s the fastest since October 2008. Consumer prices last month jumped 1.2 percent, the biggest gain since December 2002.
AUTOMOBILES
Toyota mulls relocation
Toyota Motor Corp may reluctantly move more production outside Japan if it can’t make profit because of the strength of the yen. Relocating factories “is not something I want to do,” company president Akio Toyoda said in a statement on the company’s Web site yesterday. “If we are simply unable to make a profit, however, we may be forced to move our production elsewhere.” Toyota, which makes more vehicles domestically than rivals Honda Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co and Suzuki Motor Corp combined, has said it wants to keep production of about 3 million vehicles a year in Japan. Toyota expects to earn less in operating profit this fiscal year than Honda and Nissan, whose higher ratio of overseas production offers insulation against currency swings.
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