SERBIA
Parliament okays budget
The Serbian parliament on Friday approved a revised budget for this year that would bring the nation’s deficit to 4.7 percent of GDP, compared with an initially planned 3.3 percent. “It is still high, but it is the lowest possible,” Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic told the deputies who approved the revised budget with 129 votes for and 55 against. The budget gap is now planned at 178.3 billion dinars (US$2 billion). The deficit will be funded by loans from domestic and international creditors, as well as by the sale of euro-denominated bonds, the government said. A restructuring of public companies, government spending cuts and an improved investment climate will result in 36 billion dinars in savings, he said.
MACROECONOMICS
Brazil inflation at 0.2%
Inflation in Brazil slowed to 0.2 percent last month compared with a month earlier, but at 6.7 percent over 12 months, was still well above the government’s target of 4.5 percent, official figures released on Friday showed. Last month’s figure was the lowest since the same month the year before, when consumer prices rose 0.08 percent, the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute reported. Markets had expected consumer prices to edge up 0.3 percent last month as they did in May. Food products and drinks, which rose the most in previous months, showed increases of only 0.04 percent, unlike transport, which expanded 0.14 percent last month when the country was jolted by mass street protests over public transport fare hikes, inadequate funding of health and education, and endemic political corruption.
TELECOMS
Softbank, Sprint deal passes
US regulators on Friday approved the US$21.6 billion takeover of mobile carrier Sprint by Japan’s Softbank, a deal with the potential to shake up the US wireless market. Approval by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was the last major hurdle following a hard-fought acquisition battle and allows Softbank to take a 78 percent stake in Sprint, while Sprint stockholders will retain a 22 percent stake in the new firm. The FCC also approved a separate deal that allows Sprint to take full control of the wireless broadband provider Clearwire, giving it more spectrum to compete against bigger carriers such as AT&T and Verizon.
AUTOMAKERS
Fiat, Peugeot in new deal
Fiat SpA and PSA Peugeot Citroen agreed to share investment in the development of new delivery vans that will be produced in Italy, four people familiar with the matter said. The two carmakers will split costs to develop a new version of the Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer and Citroen Jumper full-sized vans, which will be built at the SevelSud plant in central Italy, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the agreement has not been made public. Fiat has scheduled an announcement at the plant for Tuesday without providing details. Fiat and Peugeot, which currently already cooperate at SevelSud on assembly of the models, agreed in May 2011 to end a similar partnership to make mid-sized delivery vans in France. Paris-based Peugeot plans to invest more than 750 million euros (US$962 million) to produce a new model on its own to keep the SevelNord plant open.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure