The Standard and Poor’s ratings agency yesterday downgraded the EU’s long-term credit rating one notch, from “AAA” to “AA+”, citing weaker credit worthiness among the bloc.
“The downgrade ... reflects our view of weaker creditworthiness among the 28 EU member states, including among net creditors to the EU’s budget,” the agency said.
“We consider that the EU’s financial arrangements have deteriorated, and that cohesion among members has lessened.”
The outlook was stable, it said.
The downgrade came as EU leaders held a summit in Brussels to try and work out an agreement on deeper economic reforms and defense policy after striking a landmark banking union deal.
Satisfied with a banking union deal that would result in one of the biggest handovers of sovereignty to the EU since the creation of the euro currency, leaders meeting in Brussels put off plans for the next step in tighter economic policy coordination until late next year.
The landmark bank regulation deal includes a single body to police and wind up ailing banks, backed by a fund paid for by the banks themselves to avoid using taxpayer money.
The banking union is seen as a means to ensure stability in the eurozone, and proponents also hope it will help facilitate much-needed growth and jobs by getting the banks to lend freely again.
With fragile growth of just 1.1 percent and a stubbornly high unemployment rate of 12.2 percent expected for next year, the eurozone is badly in need of a boost.
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