JAPAN
Surplus at record low
The current account surplus shrank by nearly a third to a record low last year as a weak yen bloated the country’s post-Fukushima energy bills, official data showed yesterday. Japan logged a surplus of ¥3.31 trillion (US$32 billion) on its current account, the smallest on comparable data stretching back to 1985, according to the finance ministry. In December alone, Japan posted a current account deficit of ¥638.6 billion, a record for a monthly shortfall. Japan’s trade deficit more than doubled to ¥10.6 trillion last year from the previous year as costlier imports of oil and gas overwhelmed export growth.
EUROPEAN UNION
Authority warns weak banks
The incoming head of Europe’s new single banking supervisory authority has warned that weak eurozone banks will be allowed to fail following upcoming stress tests, in an interview in yesterday’s Financial Times. Frenchwoman Daniele Nouy was giving her first interview since being appointed chief of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, set up as part of attempts to stabilize the EU’s banking system and shift the financial costs of failed banks away from sovereign governments “We have to accept that some banks have no future,” she told the Financial Times. “We have to let some disappear in an orderly fashion and not necessarily try to merge them with other institutions.” Nouy also said lenders should be forced to hold collateral against their sovereign bonds to break the toxic link between failing banks and governments.
ECUADOR
Slim telecom fined
Ecuador has fined a telecoms firm owned by Mexican magnate Carlos Slim for allegedly engaging in unfair competition, officials said on Sunday. The Ecuadoran markets monitor SCPM issued a decision on Friday to fine Conecel, part of the Mexican giant America Movil, 10 percent of its 2012 sales. The fine followed an investigation by the National Telecommunications Board. In October 2012, it said Conecel was abusing its local market dominance. Conecel, which controls 67 percent of the market, has rejected the charges. Ecuador claims it is acting illegally by pressuring and having exclusive business ties to people who own land used by broadcast towers.
SOUTH AFRICA
Mediation over mine strike
Top global platinum producers are to meet independent mediators this week to discuss a two-week wage strike, according to the union whose 80,000 workers have downed tools. Earlier talks led by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration adjourned last week after the firms said they had reached “no settlement” with negotiators of the radical Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union. Producers say the current stoppages have cost the economy US$360 million. The country accounts for 80 percent of global platinum production.
UNITED STATES
Apple buying plan opposed
Investor Carl Icahn’s push for Apple Inc to buy back US$50 billion of stock this year was opposed by an influential proxy-voting service, which said such a motion would “micromanage” how the company uses capital. Investors should vote against the non-binding proposal, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc said in a report on Sunday. Icahn said last month he increased his Apple stake by US$500 million to about US$3.6 billion. Apple has recommended investors vote against Icahn’s proposal.
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