CHINA
Inflation slows to 3 percent
Inflation slowed to 3 percent last month to snap two months of acceleration in consumer prices, official figures showed yesterday, well under the government’s target for the year. The annual rise in the consumer price index compared with an increase of 3.2 percent recorded in October, the National Bureau of Statistics announced. It was also lower than the median forecast of 3.1 percent by 11 economists in a Wall Street Journal survey reported by Dow Jones Newswires. Inflation for the first 11 months of the year came in at 2.6 percent, far below the government’s full-year target of 3.5 percent.
TRADE
Germany’s surplus declined
Germany’s trade surplus contracted in October as imports grew faster than exports, falling to 16.8 billion euros (US$23 billion) from 18.7 billion euros in September, official data showed yesterday. In seasonally adjusted terms, Germany exported goods worth 92.9 billion euros, in October, up only fractionally from 92.7 billion euros in September, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. Imports, on the other hand, rose by a much stronger 2.8 percent to 76.1 billion euros from 74 billion euros.
TELECOMS
AAPT to be sold to TPG
New Zealand’s dominant telecommunications company Telecom Corp announced a deal yesterday to sell its Australian arm, AAPT, to Sydney-based TPG Telecom for A$450 million (US$411 million). Telecom said the sale was part of a restructuring that involves the company, which in August posted a fall in annual net profit of almost 80 percent, focusing on its home market. Under the changes, Telecom is attempting to become more than a mobile and fixed-line infrastructure provider, branching out into areas such as entertainment and cloud computing to meet evolving demand.
LABOR
Britain’s wages growing fast
Wages in Britain grew at their fastest rate in six years last month, a labor market survey indicated on yesterday, providing a rare signal that a long-term decline in real incomes is being checked by a return to economic growth. Prices have been consistently outpacing wages in Britain in recent years, squeezing household budgets and making the cost of living a key political battleground ahead of a general election due in 2015. However, last month starting salaries for permanent staff rose at their highest rate since November 2007, according to survey data from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and consultancy KPMG. REC chief executive Kevin Green said he expected salaries to keep increasing into next year.
BANKING
HSBC may float UK arm
HSBC Holdings PLC is considering the flotation of up to 30 percent of its British retail and commercial banking arm, the Financial Times reported, a move that would help it cope with planned new rules that demand that British banks ringfence their retail arms. Citing three people familiar with the project, the FT said the plan was at an early stage, but the matter had been discussed with investors and informally at board level. The paper added that investors estimate such a business could float with a market capitalization of about £20 billion (US$32.7 billion).
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