RETAILERS
Wal-Mart to hike wages
Minimum wage increases across the US are set to prompt Wal-Mart Stores Inc to adjust base salaries at 1,434 stores, impacting about one-third of its US locations, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters. The memo, which was sent to store managers earlier this month, offers insight into the impact of minimum wage hikes in 21 states due to come into effect on or near Thursday next week. These are adjustments that Wal-Mart and other employers have to make each year, but growing attention to the issue has expanded the scope of the change. Thirteen US states lifted the minimum wage this year, up from 10 last year and eight in 2012. For Wal-Mart, the biggest private employer in the US with 1.3 million workers, minimum wage legislation is not a small thing.
OIL
Argentina to cut prices
Argentina is set to cut the price for crude oil produced and sold in the nation to allow a 5 percent reduction in gasoline prices, the government said on Tuesday. The federal government, which regulates domestic energy prices, announced a US$7 per barrel cut in the fixed price of crude under a deal struck with private oil companies and oil-producing provinces in Latin America’s third-biggest economy. The measures would help ease price pressures on consumers facing one of the world’s highest inflation rates. However, it could disappoint producers, who have said a significant cut could jeopardize investment flows. Inflation is running at about 40 percent, according to economists, though the government clocks it at nearly half that. The government has set the price of local crude below international market prices, but the slump in global prices has left Argentine consumers suffering while producers benefit.
OIL
Iraq eyes OPEC help
Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said OPEC would have to “step in” if oil prices keep falling amid oversupply. OPEC decided on Nov. 27 to maintain its output at 30 million barrels a day to defend market share amid a glut that has helped send oil prices to the lowest levels since 2009. Prices have dropped about 20 percent since the meeting with the oversupply estimated by Qatar at 2 million barrels a day. The group’s decision was taken after Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said OPEC must protect its market share and let prices fall to trim output outside OPEC, Mahdi said. “We accepted the Saudi theory to correct the situation in the market as it made sense,” he said. The “fair price” of oil that was US$100 to US$105 a barrel is now closer to US$70 to US$80 a barrel, Mahdi said. Iraq’s Cabinet yesterday approved a budget based on an oil price of US$60.
MACROECONOMICS
Ukraine forecasts shrink
Ukrainian Minister of Finance Natalie Jaresko forecast the economy would shrink by 4.3 percent next year and warned of the huge challenge of getting state finances in order, as she presented a draft budget to parliament on Tuesday. A year of revolution and war with pro-Russian separatists has pushed the hryvnia currency to record lows and crippled the economy, which was already near bankruptcy after years of corruption and economic mismanagement. Jaresko said 30 percent of next year’s budget would be spent on defense and debt obligations, and the deficit would be 3.7 percent of GDP. She highlighted the financial toll of the standoff with eastern rebels, saying the conflict cost the government 100 million hryvnia (US$6.3 million) every day.
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