GERMANY
Growth fastest in two years
The economy grew at its fastest rate in two years in the first three months of the year, driven primarily by rising investment and household spending, data showed yesterday. GDP expanded by 0.7 percent in seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms from January to March, the federal statistics office Destatis said, confirming a preliminary estimate released two weeks ago. That was faster than the growth of 0.3 percent notched up in the preceding quarter, the office said. Investment increased by 2.3 percent, with investment in equipment rising by 1.9 percent and construction investment up 2.3 percent on account of the mild weather.
JAPAN
Abe aide advises tax hike
Raising the sales tax from 8 percent to 10 percent as planned would be the best way to win the trust of the international community, unless special circumstances intervene, a close aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said he could not rule out that Abe would call a snap election for parliament’s lower house if opposition parties submitted a threatened motion of no-confidence in the government.
STEELMAKERS
JSW mulls assets purchases
The billionaire Jindal family’s JSW Group is evaluating further purchases of distressed assets in India, while remaining watchful of debt at its flagship steel-making company. JSW Energy Ltd is financially strong and has the means to make acquisitions, while JSW Steel Ltd is planning to invest in steel plants, as well as iron ore and coking coal mines, group chief financial officer Seshagiri Rao said. JSW Group is among investors looking for discounted acquisitions as local companies and lenders sell assets to pare India’s US$119 billion mountain of soured debt.
AUSTRALIA
RBA defends inflation target
Outgoing Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens defended the central bank’s inflation target and said the framework had proved a successful tool in deciding interest rates. Stevens said he was responding to commentary that the inflation target should be changed as disinflation that has swept much of the developed world arrives. The RBA cited low, broad-based inflation as the trigger behind reducing the cash rate to a fresh low of 1.75 percent on May 3, its first cut in a year. The governor said that nobody could control inflation in the “very short-term and you shouldn’t try.” The country’s annual inflation rate has been below 2 percent since the third quarter of 2014.
INTERNET
SE Asian boom forecast
Southeast Asia’s Internet economy, spanning online shopping to games and advertising, will surge sixfold to about US$200 billion in the next decade, according to joint research by Google and Temasek Holdings Pte. As more consumers get online and shop from smartphones, e-commerce in the region could jump to US$88 billion by 2025, a 16-fold increase, according to a report the two companies released in conjunction with a conference in Singapore. That growth will be driven by an increase in the number of Internet users from 260 million to 480 million by 2020, according to the report. Indonesia, the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, is projected to add Net users faster than any other country in the world, according to the report.
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