JAPAN
Current account surplus dips
The country’s current account surplus shrank 42.4 percent from a year earlier in July due to a sharp increase in import costs, finance ministry data showed yesterday. The surplus in the current account, the broadest measure of trade with the rest of the world, stood at ¥990 billion (US$12.8 billion) in July before seasonal adjustment, the figures showed. Separate data showed a decline of 8.2 percent in July from the previous month in machinery orders, an indication of slower corporate capital spending in the face of a strong yen and concerns over a global downturn, analysts said.
GERMANY
July trade surplus shrank
The country’s trade surplus slipped to 10.4 billion euros (US$14.6 billion) in July from 12.7 billion euros in June, the government’s Destatis statistics office said yesterday, amid the deepening euro-debt crisis. Its current account surplus also retreated, falling to 7.5 billion euros in July from 11.5 billion euros the previous month. Exports from the world’s second-biggest exporter after China fell 1.8 percent in July to 86.9 billion euros, while imports fell only slightly, by 0.3 percent, to 76.7 billion euros.
FRANCE
July trade deficit widened
The country reported an increased official trade deficit of 6.46 billion euros in July on an adjusted basis owing to a rise in imports, customs data showed yesterday. Imports of refined oil products, transportation equipment and computer equipment rose sharply, while exports rose slightly, the data showed. Exports totaled 34.76 billion euros in July, while imports totaled 41.22 billion euros.
ELECTRONICS
Windows tablet rumored
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics has teamed up with Microsoft to make a new tablet computer powered by the US software giant’s latest operating system, the Korea Economic Daily reported yesterday. The daily, citing an industry source, said the new tablet based on the Windows 8 system would be unveiled at Microsoft’s BUILD developers’ conference in California from Sept. 13 to 16. A Samsung Electronics spokesman declined to comment. Analysts say Samsung is trying to diversify the operating systems of its smartphones and tablets.
INTERNET
Facebook taps Bowles
Facebook Inc, the world’s most popular social--networking service, named Erskine Bowles, a member of former US president Bill Clinton’s administration, as a director, expanding the board to seven members. Bowles, who most recently served as co-chair of US President Barack Obama’s bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, was White House chief of staff under Clinton from 1996 to 1998, the company said on Wednesday. Bowles was also president of the University of North Carolina system from 2006 to last year.
BEVERAGES
Tighten alcohol ban: study
Finnish researchers are recommending that beer and other drinks with more than 3.5 percent alcohol be banned from grocery stores to curb alcohol-related deaths. The joint study by three research institutes said that restricting the availability of higher--alcohol drinks in Alko, the state liquor store, would save about 350 people a year from alcohol-related deaths. About 3,000 people die in Finland each year because of diseases or incidents related to alcohol. Finland’s current limit for alcohol content at grocery stores is 4.7 percent.
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