BANKING
Madrid props up Bankia
Spain has made a 4.5 billion euro (US$5.7 billion) non-cash injection into Bankia, a money-losing, state-rescued lender at the heart of the nation’s financial crisis. Madrid moved urgently to shore up Bankia’s depleted coffers, delivering the capital as an advance payment on a eurozone banking rescue loan of up to 100 billion euros that was agreed in June. The state-backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring acted on Wednesday, Bankia and its parent group Banco Financiero de Ahorros said in statements issued the same day.
TRADE
Bangkok cuts export growth
Thailand’s Ministry of Finance slashed its forecast for export growth this year to 4.5 percent from 12.8 percent as Europe’s debt crisis erodes demand for the nation’s electronics, textiles, rice and rubber. Economic growth may also fall short of the ministry’s 5.7 percent projection, Somchai Sujjapongse, head of the Ministry of Finance’s fiscal policy office, said in Bangkok yesterday.
INTEREST RATES
Manila, NZ retain key rate
The Philippine central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 3.75 percent, in line with expectations it will hold fire before it cuts rates at least one more time by the end of the year. New Zealand’s central bank yesterday also held interest rates at a record low 2.5 percent, citing slowing growth in China and ongoing uncertainty in Europe. The official cash rate has been at 2.5 percent since March last year.
SWITZERLAND
SNB cuts GDP forecast
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) yesterday kept its low key rate unchanged and said the current global economic climate was forcing it to cut its economic growth outlook for this year. The Swiss central bank’s target range for the franc’s three-month London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) would remain unchanged at 0 percent to 0.25 percent, a bank spokesman said in a conference call with reporters. The SNB said it now expected the country’s GDP this year to tick in at 1.0 percent, compared with its previous estimate of 1.5 percent.
FOOD
Nestle sees China sales up
Nestle SA, the world’s largest food company, said China sales would probably grow about 20 percent this year because of rising wages and the government’s policy to boost local consumption. The slowing growth of Asia’s biggest economy has not affected the local operations of the Vevey, Switzerland-based company, which has seen expansion in most of its businesses, including dairy products and coffee, Greater China chairman Roland Decorvet said in an interview yesterday. Nestle’s China sales increased by more than 20 percent last year and will grow by a double-digit percentage next year, he said.
GAMING
New Wii out in December
Nintendo Co, the world’s biggest video-game machine maker, will sell its new Wii U console in Japan beginning in December for at least ¥26,250 (US$338) as the company tries to recover from its first annual loss. Nintendo will also sell a premium version for ¥31,500 starting on Dec. 8, president Satoru Iwata said in a Web cast yesterday. The company faces growing competition from games played online and on smartphones from companies including Apple Inc, which will begin selling the iPhone 5 next week.
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