JAPAN
Mt. Gox CEO charged
Prosecutors yesterday said that they have charged the head of collapsed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox with embezzlement, amid fraud allegations over the disappearance of hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-worth of the virtual currency. France-born Mark Karpeles, 30, was taken into police custody in Tokyo last month over the affair. He remained in custody yesterday, but has the option of petitioning the court for release pending trial. The charges are tied to allegations that Karpeles falsified data while another relates to claims he pocketed millions of dollars of bitcoin deposits.
CHINA
New credit rises after easing
The country’s broadest measure of new credit increased last month, suggesting monetary easing is showing signs of driving demand for loans. Aggregate financing rose to 1.08 trillion yuan (US$169.2 billion) last month from 718.8 billion yuan in July, according to the People’s Bank of China. New yuan loans fell to 809.6 billion yuan after surging to a six-year high in July on government stock rescue efforts. M2 money supply rose 13.3 percent from a year earlier.
SOUTH KOREA
BOK maintains rate at 1.5%
The central bank yesterday left its key interest rate unchanged at a record-low 1.5 percent, as it waited to see the timing of a much-anticipated US interest rate hike. The decision by the Bank of Korea (BOK) was widely expected, following a cut of 0.25 basis points in June. In July, the BOK cut its economic growth forecast for this year for the third time this year, to 2.8 percent. The bank has instituted four cuts in the past 12 months, totalling a full percentage point.
GERMANY
Inflation at only 0.2%
Inflation stood at just 0.2 percent last month, data showed yesterday, amid concerns that prices could begin to fall again in the 19-country eurozone. Using the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) — the yardstick used by the European Central Bank — inflation was even lower at just 0.1 percent year-on-year last month, the federal statistics office Destatis calculated. Falling energy prices were the main factor behind the stubbornly low rates, Destatis said in a statement.
FINANCE
GE asset management sale
General Electric Co (GE) is trying to sell the asset management arm that oversees the company’s pension plan as it continues to cut back on non-manufacturing operations. The company wants “buyers that possess considerable experience managing retirement plan assets” as it looks to shed GE Asset Management, according to a statement issued on Thursday. The unit has US$115 billion under management, including the company’s own plans and portfolios of clients around the globe, GE said.
INSURANCE
Fosun mulls rights offer
Fosun International Ltd (復星國際), Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang’s (郭廣昌) conglomerate that has bought insurers and real estate around the world, proposed raising HK$11.7 billion (US$1.5 billion) in a rights offer to fund its push into the banking and insurance industries. The company plans to sell as many as 871.3 million new shares at HK$13.42 each, according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing. Fosun will use the money for general corporate purposes including mergers and acquisitions in the banking and insurance industry and repayment of loans.
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