SWITZERLAND
Franc to remain capped
The Swiss National Bank’s currency cap remains necessary and it will not exclude taking further steps should the crisis in the eurozone intensify, vice president Jean-Pierre Danthine said. “We find ourselves in a situation in which the [Swiss] franc is still highly valued and we can’t allow a tightening of monetary conditions,” Danthine said in an interview with the Lucerne-based Zentralschweiz am Sonntag. The franc, which investors buy at times of heightened uncertainty, nearly touched parity with the euro in August 2011, threatening to plunge the country into a recession and prompting the central bank to set a cap of SF1.20 (US$1.28) per euro on the currency a month later. The state of affairs in the eurozone remains precarious and the franc could face further appreciation pressure, Danthine said.
FINANCE
ADB facing funding crunch
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is facing a funding crunch as the multilateral lending agency seeks to reduce widespread poverty in emerging market nations and boost infrastructure, India warned on Saturday. The Asia-Pacific region, despite boasting the world’s fastest-growing economies, is still home to about two-thirds of the world’s poor, with about 1.5 billion people living on less than US$2 a day. Member countries of the Manila-based bank need to consider ways to increase its resources to meet Asia’s massive needs for infrastructure, economic growth and combat poverty, Indian Minister of Finance P. Chidambaram said. “The support that the ADB can deliver for economic development and poverty reduction in the region will be seriously constrained by the lack of adequate capital,” he told the annual meeting of the ADB’s board of governors.
AUSTRALIA
Dollar’s rise causes tax hike
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said a 50 percent rise in the value of the Australian dollar is squeezing trade-exposed businesses and cutting tax revenue, forcing her government to make “grave” budget decisions. The erosion of tax receipts played a part in the government’s decision to raise healthcare taxation by 0.5 percentage points to fund a national disability insurance program, Gillard said in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp television yesterday. The Medicare levy, which funds the government-run healthcare system, will be lifted from a 1.5 percent surcharge on income tax to 2 percent to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which is intended to provide lifelong support for people with disabilities and their families. That will raise about A$3.3 billion (US$3.40 billion) in its first year, the government said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cameron plans growth boost
Prime Minister David Cameron will speed up the patents applications process and simplify intellectual-property rights for design companies as part of his next legislative program, a person familiar with the plans said. The measures are aimed at boosting the economy and will be at the center of the government’s agenda announced by Queen Elizabeth II when she formally opens parliament in London on Wednesday, said the source, who asked not to be named as lawmakers have yet to be told of the plans. An energy bill encouraging £110 billion (US$171 billion) of investment in the electricity industry, another bill cutting national insurance contributions for small businesses and legislation to support the construction of a high-speed rail link between London and the north of England will also be included, the person said.
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 Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday reported record sales for the first quarter, which analysts attributed to solid demand for emerging technologies. Consolidated revenue totaled NT$592.64 billion (US$18.51 billion) in the January-to-March period, up 16.5 percent from a year earlier, but down 5.26 percent from the previous quarter, TSMC said in a statement. The first-quarter revenue beat analysts’ average projection of NT$579.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported. That performance lends weight to expectations that the world’s most valuable chipmaker would return to solid growth this year after weathering a post-COVID-19-pandemic cratering of smartphone and computer sales. TSMC is budgeting
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
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