INTERNET
Cyber Monday sales up 18%
Online spending on Cyber Monday was on pace for a slower increase than during the holiday weekend as consumers started their Internet shopping earlier, International Business Machines Corp said. Web-based sales increased 18 percent on Monday from the previous year as of 3pm in New York, after jumping 26 percent on Saturday and Sunday, IBM said in a report. Over the same weekend last year online sales grew 17 percent and were up 8.5 percent on Monday. Cyber Monday remains the biggest online spending day, with total outlays expected to hit a record US$3 billion this year, Adobe Systems Inc said. The average online order on Monday was US$127.27, with 30 percent of all sales smartphones and tablets, IBM said.
AUSTRALIA
Bank keeps rates at 2%
The central bank kept interest rates at an historic low of 2 percent for a seventh month yesterday, but indicated further easing could be in the pipeline. The bank had been widely expected to hold rates steady after Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens last week urged people to “chill out” and adopt a wait-and-see approach. While growth remained below trend, the economy appeared to be undergoing moderate expansion, despite “a large decline in capital spending in the mining sector,” Stevens said. Inflation was low, employment growth solid and there were indications conditions in non-mining sectors were gradually improving, he added. Economists had widely expected the cash rate to stay on hold after comments Stevens made at a business dinner last week in which he said he was “more than content to lower it if that actually helps.”
INDIA
Economy outperforms PRC
The economy grew by 7.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, official data showed on Monday, outperforming China and giving Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a boost following a recent election drubbing. Growth in the three months to the end of September quickened to 7.4 percent from 7 percent in the previous quarter, according to Indian Ministry of Statistics data, slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations. The nation has recorded three straight quarters of growth above 7 percent, performing better than its giant neighbor China on each occasion and leading the way for emerging markets with Russia and Brazil also flagging. The figures for the second quarter of the financial year bettered China’s 6.9 percent increase in GDP recorded for the same three months and reported by Beijing last month. The central bank kept interest rates on hold yesterday.
MINING
Brazil files dam lawsuit
Brazil filed a lawsuit on Monday against two of the world’s largest mining companies for 20 billion Brazilian reais (US$5.2 billion) to clean up what it said was its worst environmental disaster, caused by the collapse of a dam. The central government and those of two states hit by the burst dam sued iron ore operator Samarco and its co-owners, the world’s largest miner BHP Billiton Ltd and the biggest iron ore miner Vale SA. Earlier on Monday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff blamed the disaster on the “irresponsible action of a company” in a speech to the COP21 climate change summit in Paris. While they are going to court, Brazilian authorities are looking for a settlement similar to the US$20.8 billion agreement reached by the US government with BP PLC following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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