BANKING
Too many banks: Alpha chair
Greece cannot afford more than two-and-a-half banks and there should be further consolidation in the sector, said the chairman of the country’s third-largest lender, Alpha, which sealed a merger with bigger rival Eurobank last week. Alpha and Eurobank last Monday rubber-stamped the deal to form the largest bank in southeast Europe, aided by a capital injection from the Qatar Investment Authority, sparking expectations more mergers were in store. “It’s true that there is no room for more than two-and-a-half banks in Greece,” said Alpha Bank’s chairman Yannis Costopoulos, who will chair the new entity’s board, in an interview with To Vima newspaper. Costopoulos dismissed concerns that debt-choked Greece would have to quit the euro.
INDIA
Oil debt to Iran repaid
India has paid off all oil debts accumulated this year because of a sanctions-related problem, central bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani told the official IRNA news agency yesterday. “Although all the US$5 billion of India’s oil debt has been cleared, because of selling oil again Iran will always be a creditor of that country,” Bahmani said, adding the payment was received in cash and not in kind through a bartering system. “So far, Iran has not had a bartering system with India for receiving oil debts but if it happens it would be for those products which are of a high quality and are needed by Iran.” India, Asia’s third-largest economy and Iran’s second oil buyer after China, racked up the debt after the Reserve Bank of India scrapped a clearing house system in December last year.
ECONOMY
IMF upbeat on Congo growth
The Democratic Republic of Congo could exceed a forecast 6.5 percent economic growth this year, but must do more to increase transparency in the mining sector, the IMF said on Saturday. Congo — which has large deposits of copper, cobalt and gold — is gearing up for general elections set for Nov. 28 assuming it surmounts major logistical and funding challenges to ensure the polls go ahead on time. The vote is seen as crucial for economic and political stability and will be the second since a five-year war ended in 2003, leaving millions dead. Despite the pressures of funding polls and higher than expected inflation, the country has maintained financial discipline, the IMF said. “Despite the difficult global economic environment, macroeconomic performance remains strong and economic growth during 2011 could be higher than the 6.5 percent previously projected,” Robert York, the IMF’s chief of mission to Congo, said in a statement.
ECONOMY
Italy denies pressuring ECB
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said yesterday Italy is not putting pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to continue buying Italian government bonds on the market. Frattini said both Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Economic Minister Giulio Tremonti had been in close contact with international financial institutions over the market turmoil which has hit the eurozone’s third-largest economy. “But the European Central Bank is an independent institution so there are no requests, pressures,” on bond buying, he told reporters at the margins of a conference. On Saturday, Frattini said he was confident the ECB would continue buying Italian bonds.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last