SOUTH KOREA
Economy grows 0.5%
The economy grew just 0.5 percent in the first quarter, the Bank of Korea said yesterday — a shade higher than originally estimated, but weighed down by an extended export slump. The revised on-quarter growth figure for the January-to-March period was slightly up on the central bank’s earlier estimate of 0.4 percent, but still down from 0.7 in the final quarter of last year. Year-on-year growth stood at 2.8 percent in the quarter. Exports, which account for about half of the South Korean economy, have been in decline for 17 straight months, while household debt has spiraled, hitting about US$1 trillion at the end of December last year.
BRAZIL
Slump less than feared
The economy shrank a less-than-feared 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics said on Wednesday. Economic output between January and March had been forecast by Itau Unibanco to fall by 0.8 percent. The year-on-year GDP shrinkage came to 5.4 percent, under the 6.1 percent fall forecast by Itau, Brazil’s leading private bank. The GDP crunch was led by a 1.2 percent dip in the industrial sector in the first quarter. There were also 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent dips in agriculture output and services respectively.
AUTOMAKERS
US auto sales slow
US auto sales slipped into lower gear last month, with the US’ leading automaker General Motors Co taking a hard hit as consumers curbed spending ahead of the summer driving season. According to Autodata Corp, last month’s sales pace was at an annual rate of 17.45 million units, up 2 percent from April, but down 6 percent from a year ago. General Motors’ sales fell 18 percent, Ford Motor Co’s slipped 6 percent and Toyota Motor Corp’s sales dropped 10 percent compared with the same month a year ago. Volkswagen AG’s sales sank 17 percent, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Subaru bucked the trend, with sales up 1 percent each.
BANKING
Goldman cuts jobs
Goldman Sachs Group Inc cut investment banking jobs in the past few weeks, joining securities firms that are adjusting to a slowdown in deal activity, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank eliminated dozens of managing directors, executive directors and vice presidents across the mergers and debt and equity capital markets teams, the people said. The cuts affected bankers in cities including London, New York and Hong Kong, and are in addition to the bank’s annual 5 percent cull of employees deemed underperformers, the people said.
RIDE-HAILERS
Uber raises US$3.5 billion
Uber Technologies Inc said it received its biggest investment to date, raising US$3.5 billion from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. The investment valued Uber at US$62.5 billion, the same amount as its previous valuation, the company said. Yasir al-Rumayyan, the managing director of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, is to take a board seat. Uber expanded its previous financing round to include the investment from the fund. The money brings Uber’s total balance sheet, including cash and convertible debt, to more than US$11 billion, the company said.
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