MACROECONOMICS
South Korea raises budget
The South Korean government is to spend a record 386.7 trillion won (US$322.83 billion) next year. The proposed budget for next year is 2 trillion won more than this year’s 384.7 trillion won spending plans, which included a supplementary package approved in July. The government’s debt is expected to climb to a record 40.1 percent of the country’s GDP as the deficit reaches 2.3 percent of GDP next year, the South Korean Ministry of Finance said in its budget proposal. It said South Korea is expected to have a budget shortfall through 2019. The government has cut its growth forecast for next year to 3.3 percent from 3.5 percent.
MACROECONOMICS
German trade hits new high
Germany’s exports and imports rose to new monthly records in July, the federal statistics office Destatis said yesterday. The country exported 103.4 billion euros (US$115.67 billion) worth of goods in seasonally adjusted terms in July, 2.4 percent more than in the previous month. At the same time, imports grew by 2.2 percent to 80.6 billion euros. That left a trade surplus of 22.8 billion euros, up from 22.1 billion euros the previous month, Destatis said in a statement.
AUSTRALIA
Business conditions improve
The nation’s business conditions last month were the strongest in 10 months, according to a survey released yesterday by National Australia Bank Ltd. The survey showed that: Business conditions rose five points to +11; the highest since October last year; Business confidence fell three points to +1, the weakest since July 2013; Business trading rose eight points to +20, while profitability rose five points to +12. The improvement in business conditions “adds to the mounting evidence that Australian dollar depreciation and record low interest rates are having the desired effect and helping to offset the weakness in mining,” the bank said in a statement.
PHILIPPINES
Free Wi-Fi planned
The government is planning to provide free Wi-Fi services to half of its towns and cities this year and nationwide coverage by the end of next year, limiting the data revenue prospects for Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co and Globe Telecom Inc. The free Internet service is set to cost the government about 1.5 billion pesos (US$31.97 million) per year and is to be available in areas such as public schools, hospitals, airports and parks, Information and Communications Technology Office deputy executive director Monchito Ibrahim said. The new service is expected to push data charges lower in the nation. Access to the Internet costs about US$18 per megabit per second in the country.
INSURANCE
RSA quits Latin America
British insurer and takeover target Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA) yesterday said that it has agreed to sell its Latin American operations to Colombian investment group Inversiones Suramericana for £403 million (US$619.27 million) in cash. The London-listed insurance firm had last month received a £5.6 billion takeover approach from Swiss rival Zurich Insurance. The Latin American sale would be “significantly” positive for RSA’s capital, RSA said in a statement. The deal is not conditional on the outcome of an offer from Zurich, which was aware of the sale plan before it announced the acquisition plan last month, RSA added.
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
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
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