ECONOMY
Brazil slips into recession
Brazil has slipped into recession, the government said on Friday, deepening the gloom in the world’s seventh-largest economy already battered by falling commodity prices, political crisis and a corruption scandal. In the second quarter of this year, GDP fell 1.9 percent, according to official figures. GDP had already been down by 0.7 percent in the first quarter, the government statistics agency IBGE said, revising that figure down further from the earlier estimate of minus-0.2 percent. Year-on-year, second quarter growth was down by 2.6 percent.
UNITED KINGDOM
Exports driving growth
Britain’s economy gathered speed in the second three months of this year, boosted by a jump in exports and business investment in the latest sign that the recovery is broadening out. Official figures on Friday showed GDP rose by 0.7 percent in the second quarter, confirming a preliminary reading, and up from 0.4 percent in the first quarter. Exports contributed the most to growth in the second quarter.
INTERNET
Avid Life CEO resigns
The chief executive of infidelity Web site Ashley Madison’s parent company Avid Life Media has left, just over a week after hackers leaked data about millions of its clients in a massive cyberassault. Avid Life on Friday said the departure of Noel Biderman was by “mutual agreement” and its existing senior management team would take over until a new CEO is appointed. “This change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees,” the Toronto-based company said.
MINING
Codelco profit plummets
Chile’s state-run copper giant Codelco said its profit plunged more than 30 percent in the first half of this year from the previous year because of tumbling prices for the metal. The world’s largest copper company on Friday said it earned US$875 million in the first semester compared with US$1.3 billion in the same period a year ago. Codelco’s production rose by 5.5 percent in the first semester to 910,000 tonnes.
PETROLEUM
Shell shuts Nigeria pipelines
Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC has shut down two key supply pipelines in Nigeria because of leaks and sabotage and declared a force majeure on crude oil exports. Shell Nigeria subsidiary SPDC said in a statement the force majeure became effective from Thursday “following the shutdown of both the Trans Niger Pipeline and Nembe Creek Trunkline.” The two pipelines take crude to the Bonny Light exports terminal, one of Nigeria’s main oil terminals.
AIRLINES
Glitch cuts Air Canada prices
Air Canada said a computer glitch resulted in a temporary mispricing of west coast flight passes for business-class travel after customers bought the passes at a significantly reduced price. Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick on Friday said that the pass, good for 10 one-way flights, was displayed at US$604 earlier this week instead of the correct price of US$6,048. Air Canada was not able to say how many passes were purchased.
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