CREDIT RATINGS
France retains ‘AAA’: Fitch
Fitch Ratings yesterday said it was keeping France’s top “AAA” credit rating, the only one of the three major ratings agencies to do so, but added that its outlook remained negative. “The affirmation of France’s ‘AAA’ status is underpinned by its wealthy and diversified economy, stable political, civil and social institutions and its exceptional financing flexibility reflecting its status as a large benchmark eurozone sovereign issuer,” it said in a statement. Nevertheless, Fitch’s outlook remained negative, meaning that a future downgrade is possible, it said.
INFLATION
India WPI eases to 7.24%
India’s inflation unexpectedly eased last month, a moderation that may spur the central bank to hold off interest rate cuts next week as price gains remain above its comfort level. The wholesale-price index (WPI) rose 7.24 percent from a year earlier, after climbing 7.45 percent in October, the commerce ministry said yesterday. The Reserve Bank of India will review interest rates at its final meeting on Tuesday.
MACROECONOMICS
Thailand raises forecasts
Thailand’s central bank raised its economic growth forecasts for this year and next as domestic consumption and investment support expansion. GDP may increase 5.8 percent this year, compared with an earlier prediction of 5.7 percent, Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said at a seminar in Bangkok late on Thursday. The economy may expand 4.7 percent next year, higher than the previous 4.6 percent projection, he said.
BANKING
UBS may face US$1bn fine
Swiss bank UBS faces a fine of about US$1 billion next week to settle charges of rigging the Libor interest rate benchmark, a person familiar with the situation said on Thursday. Such a penalty would be more than double the US$450 million fine levied on British bank Barclays in June by US and British regulators and would be the third massive US fine to hit big European banks this week. “The global settlement is about US$1 billion,” the source said. “It’s expected early next week — on Monday or Tuesday.” UBS declined to comment. British and US regulatory authorities also declined to comment.
ELECTRONICS
Cancer linked to Samsung
A South Korean government agency says working at a Samsung Electronics factory caused the breast cancer of a worker who died earlier this year. Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service yesterday said there was a considerable causal relationship between the woman’s cancer and her five years of work at a Samsung semiconductor plant in South Korea. The agency under the labor ministry said she was exposed to organic solvents and radiation at Samsung. The woman worked for Samsung from 1995 to 2000. She died in March, aged 36, three years after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
SOFTWARE
Adobe beats forecasts
Adobe Systems Inc reported fiscal fourth-quarter sales and profit that topped analysts’ estimates as customers embraced its flagship Creative Suite software. Profit excluding some items for the period, which ended in November, was US$0.61 a share on sales of US$1.15 billion, the San Jose, California-based company said on Thursday. Analysts on average had projected profit of US$0.56 a share on revenue of US$1.1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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
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
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