MACROECONOMICS
S Korea jobless rate rises
South Korea’s unemployment rate inched up last month, with fewer jobs being created in the manufacturing sector, government data showed yesterday. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 3.2 percent, up from 3.1 percent in April, according to Statistics Korea. It was the first month-on-month increase since February. The statistics agency said the number of social-welfare jobs increased, while job gains in the manufacturing sector slowed down.
INDUSTRY
Indian output weak at 2%
India’s industrial output growth slid to a lower-than-expected 2 percent in April, data showed yesterday, suggesting that recovery remains sluggish. The year-on-year growth figures from factories, mines and utilities undershot market forecasts of about 2.5 percent. Manufacturing, which accounts for three-quarters of the industrial production index, grew 2.8 percent in April compared with a year earlier.
MACROECONOMICS
German inflation picks up
Inflation in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, picked up last month from the two-and-a-half-year low it had reached the previous month, data from the federal statistics office Destatis showed yesterday. The cost of living in Germany increased 1.5 percent year-on-year last month, up from 1.2 percent in April, data showed. On a monthly basis, the consumer price index rose 0.4 percent from April.
AUTOMAKERS
Volkswagen expands recall
Automobile maker Volkswagen AG (VW) will recall nearly 26,000 cars in Australia in response to potential gearbox problems, the company said yesterday, following recalls in China, Singapore and Japan. Volkswagen Australia would recall Golf, Jetta, Polo, Passat and Caddy models manufactured between June 2008 and September 2011, the company said in a statement. The recall would affect 25,928 vehicles fitted with the seven-speed DQ200 direct-shift gearbox after car owners complained of transmission and engine failures causing loss of power. Subsidiary Audi followed suit and recalled more than 6,000 hatchbacks in Australia due to the same gearbox concerns.
FINANCE
Chicago exchange fined
The largest US options exchange has agreed to pay a US$6 million penalty to settle federal charges that it failed in its duty to enforce trading rules. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday that the penalty being paid by the Chicago Board Options Exchange was the first imposed against an exchange for failures of regulatory oversight. The Chicago exchange failed, among other things, to prevent abusive short-selling by a member firm between 2008 and last year, the SEC said.
ENERGY
Petronas invests in Canada
Malaysian national oil company Petronas has announced a multibillion-dollar plan to extract, liquefy and export natural gas in western Canada to energy-hungry markets in Asia. Petronas will invest between US$9 billion and US$11 billion to construct two liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, vice president of corporate planning Arif Mahmood said. Target date for completion is late 2018. The site will be designed with the potential to add a third plant and LNG storage tank, Petronas said on its Web site. Another US$5 billion will be invested in a 750km pipeline, to be built and operated by TransCanada Corp, to supply gas to the plants, Arif 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
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