Slovenia’s sovereign-credit grade was cut by Fitch Ratings, which cited a worsening economic outlook and a widening budget deficit as the eurozone nation battles to rescue its banking industry and avoid a bailout.
The long-term rating was lowered one level to “BBB+” from “A-,” on par with Ireland and Italy, Fitch said on Friday in an e-mailed statement from London.
The outlook was left at negative, meaning the ratings company is more likely to reduce its assessment further than leave it the same or raise it.
“The macroeconomic and fiscal outlook has deteriorated significantly since Fitch’s last rating review” in August last year, it wrote. “The agency now forecasts a 2 percent contraction in real GDP in 2013 and a decline of 0.3 percent in 2014, when Slovenia is expected to be one of only two eurozone economies to contract.”
Slovenia, struggling with its second recession since 2009, is working to fix its ailing banking industry with a 900 million euro (US$1.2 billion) capital boost and the creation of a so-called “bad bank” to cleanse lenders’ balance sheets and aid economic recovery.
Moody’s cut the country’s credit to junk last month, citing the government’s bill for the bank rescue.
Bond-market history indicates that the utility of sovereign ratings may be limited. The government is preparing to sell state-company stakes beginning in September to raise cash, Slovenian Finance Minister Uros Cufer said on Thursday in an interview.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive, will assess an economic-overhaul plan from the Adriatic nation this month.
The fiscal deficit will widen to 5 percent of GDP this year from 4 percent last year, Fitch predicted on Friday. That compares with a government goal of 2.8 percent.
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