COMMODITIES
Vekselberg quits RUSAL
Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg yesterday quit as chairman of the world’s largest aluminum producer, UC RUSAL, saying the heavily indebted company was in deep crisis after a long battle with fellow oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The resignation tightens Deripaska’s grip on RUSAL, but the company faces a struggle to recover because of a fall in global aluminum prices and its large debt, acquired a stake in Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest nickel and palladium miner. “I regret to say at this time that RUSAL is in a deep crisis, caused by the actions of the management,” said Vekselberg, who has a 15.8 percent stake in the company along with his partners. In response, RUSAL issued a statement, accusing Vekselberg of failing to fulfill the role of chairman and indicating that he would have been removed in any case.
JAPAN
Tokyo can buy China bonds
Tokyo said yesterday it had won approval from Beijing to buy Chinese government bonds for the first time, in a move aimed at binding Asia’s two biggest economies and traditional rivals closer together. Tokyo was cleared to buy Chinese government bond issues worth US$10.3 billion, Minister of Finance Jun Azumi said in Tokyo. Under the deal, Beijing gave the nod for Tokyo to buy 65 billion yuan (US$10.3 billion) in Chinese public debt, but completing the purchase “will take several months” because of administrative requirements, he said. China has already been investing in Japanese government debt in an apparent bid to diversify some of its currency reserves — the world’s biggest — into yen amid concerns about Europe’s debt crisis and prospects for the US dollar.
FRANCE
Inflation rate falls again
The inflation rate unexpectedly fell for a second month. Consumer prices rose 2.5 percent from a year earlier based on EU methodology, compared with a 2.6 percent increase in January, Paris-based national statistics office INSEE said yesterday. Economists had forecast a 2.6 percent gain, the median of 18 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed. Prices rose 0.5 percent in the month after declining 0.4 percent in January.
INDUSTRY
Brazil urged to boost sector
Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry (CNI) on Monday called for the government to bolster the industrial sector, which has been reeling from the country’s economic slowdown and the rise of the real. “We cannot let the Brazilian industry collapse,” CNI president Robson Braga said in remarks released by the confederation. He urged the government to take measures, including hastening the delivery of environmental licenses and to introduce incentives to boot investment in infrastructure and reduce red tape.
UNITED STATES
Stress tests to be published
The Federal Reserve said it would release results tomorrow of its so-called stress tests of the nation’s 19 largest banks. The Fed conducts the tests on banks every year, but this is the first time since 2009 it will release its results to the public. Among the scenarios the tests imagine are 13 percent unemployment, much higher than today’s 8.3 percent, and a 50 percent drop in stock prices. The Fed can stop banks from paying stock dividends or buying back their own stock if they fail the test.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day