AUTOMAKERS
Takata airbag explodes
Another exploding Takata Corp airbag has left a US driver hurt after a crash in a Honda car last month, the Japanese automaker said yesterday. The car in question was a 2003 Civic sedan, a spokesman for Honda said. A Takata spokesman said the company “is closely communicating with Honda to discover the circumstances of the incident.” About 20 million vehicles produced by some of the world’s biggest automakers are being recalled due to the risk their Takata-made airbags could deploy with excessive explosive power, spraying potentially fatal shrapnel into the vehicle. The problem has been linked to at least five deaths globally.
SWITZERLAND
Growth revised downward
The Swiss franc’s recent surge is set to hurt economic growth in the nation but not as badly as initially feared, ratings firm Standard & Poor’s said on Monday. The agency said it had revised its economic growth forecasts for the nation downward, now expecting GDP to expand just 0.7 percent this year and 1.9 percent next year. In December last year, it predicted the economy would grow 1.7 percent this year and 2.1 percent next year.
MACROECONOMICS
US’ ‘AAA’ rating affirmed
The US’ “AAA” credit rating was affirmed by Fitch Ratings Inc, which cited the strength of the nation’s economy, capital markets and status as the issuer of the world’s reserve currency. The US budget deficit, which has narrowed from a peak of US$1.4 trillion in 2009 to US$483.3 billion last year, is expected to continue to shrink this year and next year, although reforms to mandatory spending and taxation measures would be needed to prevent increases after 2018, analysts Charles Seville and Ed Parker wrote in a report released on Monday.
TRADE
Japan said to eye US rice
Japan is set to propose increasing US rice imports during its negotiations over a trade deal between the two nations, giving ground on its most politically sensitive agriculture product to reach a regional agreement. The measures are to be proposed in Tokyo this week, two officials who have knowledge of the nation’s negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership said. They asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential.
PAYROLLS
Zimbabwe cuts bonuses
The Zimbabwean government said on Monday it has suspended payment of annual bonuses to public workers for two years as it seeks to cut spending while battling to mend the economy. Zimbabwean Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa told a news conference in the capital that the government has a monthly wage bill of about US$260 million. “Almost 82 percent of the budget is channeled towards salaries,” he said.
RETAIL
LVMH sales up 16%
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the world’s largest luxury-goods maker, reported a 16 percent increase in first-quarter sales as the weak euro and growth in the Americas helped compensate for a slowdown in China. Revenue increased to 8.32 billion euros (US$8.78 billion), LVMH said in a statement on Monday. Analysts predicted 8.13 billion euros. Excluding acquisitions, disposals and currency swings, revenue climbed 3 percent.
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