JAPAN
Nominees pass lower house
The government’s nominees to lead the Bank of Japan (BOJ) won approval from the lower house of parliament yesterday, moving the trio a step closer to taking the top jobs at the central bank. Proposed BOJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda is widely expected to win upper house confirmation today. The lower house yesterday also approved Kuroda’s proposed deputies, Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso, with both also on course to win upper house support, clearing the way for them to take up the central bank posts. The new BOJ management team is slated to take office next week.
SOUTH KOREA
Won falls to five-month low
The won fell to a five-month low as overseas investors pulled money from local stocks after the central bank left interest rates unchanged, despite concerns over whether growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy is back on track. The Bank of Korea kept its benchmark seven-day repurchase rate at 2.75 percent for a fifth month yesterday. The won fell 1.1 percent to 1,109.11 to the US dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It touched 1,110.61, the weakest level since Oct. 15 last year.
PHILIPPINES
Central bank maintains rate
The central bank kept its benchmark interest rate steady at a record low of 3.5 percent yesterday, as expected, but cut the rate on its short-term special deposit account facility for a second meeting in a row to temper the peso’s rise. It also raised its inflation forecasts for this year and next, but said price rises would likely remain manageable, supporting market views rates would be raised later in the year. Data last week showed annual inflation last month quickened to 3.4 percent, the fastest in five months.
INDIA
Inflation rises to 6.84%
The country’s inflation increased unexpectedly last month, data showed yesterday, tempering hopes of an interest rate cut next week after the central bank chief warned about rising prices. After four months of easing, the widely watched Wholesale Price Index rose to 6.84 percent last month from a year earlier, up from 6.62 percent in the previous month. On Wednesday, Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao reiterated his concern about persistently high inflation.
AUTOMAKERS
VW to raise China production
Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest automaker, plans to increase production 60 percent by 2018 in China, where the German company’s earnings last year surged by almost half. A new plant in China that the supervisory board has just approved will be designed to build as many as 300,000 vehicles yearly and will start operating in early 2016, chief executive officer Martin Winterkorn said yesterday in a statement. Production capacity in China will rise to 4 million vehicles a year by 2018 from about 2.5 million currently.
SOUTH KOREA
‘Dream Hub’ faces collapse
A US$28 billion real-estate project in Seoul was facing collapse yesterday after developer Yongsan Development Corp missed a Wednesday deadline to pay 5.9 billion won (US$5.4 million) in interest on asset-backed commercial paper worth 200 billion won. The 31 trillion won “Dream Hub” project aims to develop a 56 hectare plot in central Seoul into a modern business hub, with shopping malls, hotels, department stores and apartment blocks, as well as a landmark 111-story tower.
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