MACROECONOMICS
Bank of Russia cuts forecast
Russia’s central bank cut its base-case economic forecast for next year to show no growth, assuming sanctions remain in place and oil averages US$95 a barrel. The regulator also pushed back its medium-term inflation target of 4 percent to 2017 from 2016, according to a revised monetary policy plan for 2015-2017 released yesterday. The base-case scenario sees sanctions lasting through the end of 2017. Russia’s decision to increase its key rate this year has helped contain the ruble’s drop against the US dollar, which would have been 10 percent greater if no action had been taken, Russian First Deputy Governor Ksenia Yudaeva said in an e-mailed statement. “Bank of Russia will maintain tight monetary policy only while there are significant risks of rising inflationary expectations amid unfavorable external political and economic trends,” she said.
AUTOS
Airbag maker stock tumbles
Shares in Japanese auto parts firm Takata yesterday plunged nearly 17 percent in Tokyo following calls for a criminal investigation into an airbag defect that has been linked to at least four deaths. The stock sank 16.87 percent to close at ¥1,177 after two US senators on Friday called for a criminal probe, and as the New York Times reported that Takata covered up the fault. The embattled firm — whose shares have lost about 60 percent since the start of the year — on Thursday issued a warning of a bigger-than-expected annual loss, as it faces lawsuits and regulatory probes. Questions continue to mount over airbag defects linked to the deaths in the US and dozens of injuries.
PROPERTY
Safra buys the Gherkin
The London skyscraper known as the Gherkin is being bought by the Safra Group, the banking empire controlled by billionaire Joseph Safra. The Safra Group agreed to acquire the 180m office tower designed by architect Norman Foster from Deloitte LLP, the building’s receivers, the companies said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “While only ten years old, this building is already a London icon that is distinguished from others in the market, with excellent value growth potential,” Safra Group said in the statement. Deloitte LLP was hired by the building’s lenders to sell the Gherkin in July to end years of defaults. A fund managed by IVG Immobilien AG, once Germany’s biggest real-estate company, and London-based Evans Randall Ltd bought the building from reinsurer Swiss Re Ltd for £600 million (US$954 million) in 2007.
CURRENCY
Malaysia on yuan clearing
Malaysia’s central bank is working with its Chinese counterpart to introduce yuan clearing in the Southeast Asian nation after bilateral trade surged more than 10-fold since the start of the last decade. Bank Negara Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding with the People’s Bank of China yesterday to coordinate and cooperate on the supervision of the yuan business, it said in an e-mailed statement. It did not say which lender would be appointed as Malaysia’s clearing bank for yuan, nor did it give a start date. Trade between the two nations has increased by 20 percent annually over the past two decades to exceed US$100 billion last year, Bank Negara said, and leaders of the two nations in May set a goal of increasing this to US$160 billion. Yuan deposits in Malaysia have surged more than 10-fold since 2010 to 10.7 billion yuan (US$1.7 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
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