SOUTH KOREA
Exports post annual drop
Exports fell 0.9 percent last month from a year ago, in large part because fewer working days that month hampered production, state data showed yesterday. Last month’s exports amounted to US$47.88 billion, compared with US$48.31 billion a year ago, the Ministry of Trade said, blaming a four-day holiday early in the month. Imports amounted to US$42.53 billion, up 0.3 percent from US$42.39 billion a year ago, leaving a US$5.3 billion trade surplus, the ministry said. It was the 28th consecutive month that Asia’s fourth-largest economy has posted a trade surplus. Exports to Europe and the US rose thanks to growing shipments of cars and petrochemical products, while those to top trading partner China slowed, as did those to Japan, it added. Last year, overall exports grew 2.1 percent, while imports fell 0.8 percent for a trade surplus of US$44.09 billion. The ministry forecasts a 6.4 percent rise in exports this year.
PORTUGAL
Lisbon mulls tax hikes
The government is considering raising taxes after the country’s highest court rejected austerity measures included in its budget for this year. The cuts are part of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s plans to help the economy emerge from the painful economic constraints imposed by a three-year international bailout that saved the country from collapse. The Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that cuts to public-sector wages, pensions and health allowances are unconstitutional. The decision leaves a budgetary shortfall and Passos Coelho says he “cannot commit to not raising taxes” as the cuts were worth about 750 million euros (US$1 billion).
INTERNET
Pirate Bay cofounder caught
One of the founders of file-sharing Web site Pirate Bay has been arrested in southern Sweden to serve an outstanding sentence for copyright violations after being on the run for nearly two years, Swedish police said on Saturday. Peter Sunde had been wanted by Interpol since 2012 after being sentenced in Sweden to prison time and fined for breaching copyright laws. “We have been looking for him since 2012,” Swedish National Police Board spokeswoman Carolina Ekeus said. “He was given eight months in jail so he has to serve his sentence.” Four men linked to Pirate Bay were originally sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 32 million kronor (US$4.8 million). An appeals court later reduced the prison sentences by varying amounts, but raised the fine to 46 million kronor.
FINANCE
Icahn denies Clorox probe
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said he is not aware of any investigation involving him and golfer Phil Mickelson regarding trades related to Clorox Co and Dean Foods Co, and called a report by the Wall Street Journal “completely irresponsible.” “I never purchased or have been involved in any way with Dean Foods,” Icahn said in a telephone interview. “While I have obviously heard of Phil Mickelson, I have never spoken to him or met him.” Icahn, Mickelson and sports gambler William Walters are targets of an insider trading probe by US authorities, the Journal reported on Friday, citing people briefed on the investigation. The investigation is looking at large option trades in the days before Icahn’s US$10.2 billion offer for Clorox in July 2011, as well as trading patterns related to Dean Foods, the Journal said.
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
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
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