FINANCE
Greece deal on schedule
Greece is on track to complete a draft deal with international creditors on a third bailout by Tuesday, with a possible first disbursement by Aug. 20, a source familiar with a conference call of senior EU finance officials said on Friday. Talks are proceeding smoothly and might be completed over the weekend, the source said. If a draft memorandum of understanding and an updated debt sustainability analysis are ready on Tuesday as planned, the Greek government and parliament would be expected to approve them by Thursday. Eurozone finance ministers could then meet or hold a teleconference on Friday to endorse an up to 86 billion euro (US$94.33 billion) three-year loan program for Athens, the source said.
IRELAND
Fitch says outlook ‘positive’
Fitch Ratings Inc raised its outlook on Ireland to “positive” from “stable,” citing the country’s strengthening economy after exiting an international bailout in 2013. Fitch highlighted that tax revenue increased by 11.7 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period a year ago, notably on strong corporate tax receipts. Revenue from value-added tax and personal income tax grew by 8 percent and 6 percent respectively. Ireland also benefited from a low interest rate environment, which has allowed it to make an 18 billion euro repayment of its IMF loan ahead of schedule, resulting in interest savings, Fitch said.
TAXES
Thailand to tax inheritance
Thailand is to start collecting inheritance tax for the first time in February next year. The Inheritance Tax Act 2015 stipulates that a 5 percent tax is to be imposed on inherited assets worth more than 100 million baht (US$2.85 million) for parents or direct descendants and 10 percent for others. The act became law with its publication this week in the Royal Thai Government Gazette, after passage in May by the interim National Legislative Assembly. The gazette said the purpose of the law was to combat social injustice arising from economic inequality, and to use the revenue to develop the country.
MEXICO
Debt collection gripes triple
Complaints about harassment by debt collectors have more than tripled in Mexico, with Mexicans unhappy over late-night or early-morning telephone calls dunning them for debts they often do not even owe. The head of the country’s agency for protecting bank clients, Mario di Costanzo, on Friday said that it has levied about US$12 million in fines against collection agencies that work for banks or other financial entities. Di Costanzo said 16,201 complaints were registered in the first six months of this year, compared with 4,997 in the same period last year.
NIGERIA
FIRS targets tax evaders
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Friday said it would crack down on tax evaders by denying access to banking facilities for individuals and companies that failed to join its register. FIRS Chairman Sunday Ogungbesan told a news briefing in Lagos there were more than 440,000 companies in the country, which has Africa’s biggest economy, but only about 120,000 paid taxes. Tax evasion can be punished with up to five years in prison.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts