EUROZONE
Business activity accelerates
Business activity accelerated last month at its fastest pace for nearly a year as customers took advantage of ongoing price discounting to place new orders at a rate not seen since mid-2011, a survey found. Markit’s final March Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), seen as a good indicator of growth, stood at 54.0, a touch below the preliminary estimate of 54.1, but well ahead of February’s 53.3. A reading above 50 implies growth. Meanwhile, last month’s service sector PMI rose to 54.2 from 53.7, increasing at its fastest pace in eight months.
AUSTRALIA
RBA base rate unchanged
The central bank yesterday left interest rates on hold at 2.25 percent for the second successive month, but kept the door open for further cuts as the economy continues to struggle. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said after its monthly board meeting that it was “appropriate to hold interest rates steady for the time being.” “Further easing of policy may be appropriate over the period ahead, in order to foster sustainable growth in demand and inflation consistent with the target,” the RBA said in a statement.
INDIA
Interest rates on hold
The central bank kept interest rates on hold yesterday, saying most commercial lenders have yet to pass on two previous cuts to customers in Asia’s third-largest economy. After meeting in the financial capital, Mumbai, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the benchmark repo rate — the level at which it lends to commercial banks — would remain unchanged at 7.50 percent. The decision was widely expected by economists who said the RBI would remain cautious until the impact on food prices of crop damage from earlier-than-expected rains becomes clear.
ENTERTAINMENT
Viacom to reduce workforce
Media-entertainment giant Viacom Inc on Monday said it plans unspecified “workforce reductions” as part of a wide-ranging reorganization to help boost its financial performance in the face of increasing competition. Viacom, which owns Paramount studios in Hollywood and a range of television channels including MTV and Comedy Central, said in a statement it will set aside US$785 million for the reorganization to cover the costs of job cuts and writing down the value of “underperforming” assets. The company declined to elaborate on the number of cuts or provide other details. These changes will result in annualized savings of about US$350 million, the statement said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Bank profits still lower
Five years after the financial crisis, profitability at the country’s largest banks remains lower than in 2009 and bad loans higher, according to KPMG LLP. The country’s five biggest lenders — Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Lloyds Banking Group PLC, HSBC Holdings PLC, Barclays PLC and Standard Chartered PLC — posted a 62 percent annual gain in combined pretax profits last year, London-based KPMG said in a statement yesterday. However, average return on equity, a measure of profitability, remained lower than in 2009. Combined pretax profit was £20.6 billion (US$30.6 billion) last year, compared with £12.7 billion a year earlier, according to KPMG.
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