FRANCE
Debt exceeds estimates
Public deficit and debt for last year were higher than previous government estimates, official data showed yesterday, dealing a fresh blow to President Francois Hollande a day after disastrous local polls. Public deficit stood at 4.3 percent of GDP, compared with 4.9 percent the previous year, according to data released by the INSEE statistics agency. Previous government estimates said it would stand at 4.1 percent.
GERMANY
Retail sales rise
Retail sales, a closely watched measure of household confidence, increased in February, official data showed yesterday. Retailers’ sales increased by 1.3 percent in February compared with January, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. Retail sales had already increased by 1.7 percent in January and analysts had been expecting a drop of around 0.5 percent for February. On a 12-month basis, business increased by 2 percent in February compared with the same month last year, the statisticians calculated.
SOUTH KOREA
Trade surplus grows
The nation’s current account surplus grew to US$4.5 billion in February, as imports fell and a deficit in the services account narrowed, state data showed yesterday. The preliminary figure compares with US$3.29 billion in January, according to data from the Bank of Korea. The current account — the broadest measure of cross-border trade — has been in the black for 24 successive months. Exports in February totaled US$48 billion, down from US$50.6 billion in January, while imports fell to US$42.6 billion from US$46.2 billion.
UNITED KINGDOM
Housing costs continue rise
House prices increased for a 14th consecutive month last month, the longest run of gains in almost seven years, as momentum spread across the country. Values in England and Wales rose 0.6 percent from February, with the southwest and East Anglia registering the largest increases, property researcher Hometrack Ltd said in a report published yesterday. Prices in London climbed 0.7 percent, while 50 percent of postcode districts reported gains. Nationally, prices rose 5.7 percent last month from a year earlier and the annual rate of growth was positive across all regions for the first time since September 2007, Hometrack said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Novartis pushes heart drug
Novartis AG said a final-phase clinical trial on a treatment for chronic heart failure met its goal and the drugmaker plans to ask global regulators for marketing approval for the drug. Novartis is ending the test early as the results show patients treated with the drug, known as LCZ696, lived longer without being hospitalized for heart failure than those who received standard treatment, the Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker said in a statement yesterday.
TECHNOLOGY
Two Samsung units to merge
Samsung SDI, the world’s largest smartphone battery maker, said yesterday it would absorb an affiliate producing electronic chemical materials, in the latest restructuring of the giant Samsung Group. The firm said it would complete the merger with Cheil Industries by July 1 through a stock swap. Both firms are units of the group, South Korea’s largest business conglomerate.
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