OIL
Kuwait posts budget deficit
Kuwait posted a budget deficit of US$18.2 billion in the fiscal year that ended on March 31, as lower crude prices slash into government revenue, Kuwaiti acting oil minister Anas al-Saleh said. The state-run Kuwait News Agency on Sunday quoted al-Saleh as saying the deficit was nearly US$9 billion less than budgeted for. The budget deficit reflects the impact lower oil prices have had on crude exporters, particularly Gulf Arab monarchies that rely on oil revenues to support generous subsidies, welfare benefits and public sector wages.
MACROECONOMY
UK to cut corporate tax
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne plans to slash corporation tax to less than 15 percent to tempt businesses to stay following the nation’s shock vote to leave the EU, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Osborne plans to create a what he called a super-competitive economy, cutting corporation tax by more than 5 percentage points from 20 percent to the lowest for any major economy, it said. The move, which would bring the tax close to Ireland’s 12.5 percent rate, follows concern companies could flee the uncertainty after Brexit.
OIL
Venezuela revenues fall
Venezuela’s oil revenues plummeted 40.7 percent last year due to sinking global oil prices, the nation’s state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) said in its annual report released on Sunday. PDVSA — the world’s fifth-largest oil company — earned US$72.2 billion in revenues last year, a sharp drop from 2014’s US$121.9 billion. Its net profit fell 19 percent to US$7.3 billion. The first half of this year saw the value of Venezuela’s crude oil tumble to an average of US$31.15 per barrel, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining said on Friday last week. The sector’s nose-dive has exacerbated the nation’s already dire economic situation in which 80 percent of basic consumer products, including food and medicine, are in short supply. Soaring prices and shortages have, in turn, led to riots, looting and vigilante justice.
MACROECONOMY
Japanese firms cut forecasts
Japanese companies cut their forecasts for inflation for five years’ time, dimming the prospects for Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda meeting the 2 percent inflation target set for the next fiscal year. Companies expect 1.1 percent of inflation in five years, the lowest estimate since the survey began in 2014, according to a report by the BOJ yesterday. In three years, companies also expect 1.1 percent price growth and 0.7 percent in one year. The price outlook among companies illustrates a stark contrast with the BOJ’s projection of reaching the 2 percent inflation target by March 2018.
CONSTRUCTION
Kier plays down Brexit
Kier Group PLC, a construction and support services firm, said the UK’s decision to exit the EU had not impacted its business to date due to the resilience afforded by its strong order books and wide range of activities. The company, whose activities range from building power stations to outsourcing work for local councils, said that although the EU referendum results had created some uncertainty, its underlying trading had been in line with its own expectations. The property unit had a pipeline in excess of £1 billion, consisting of projects that were being built non-speculatively, and the residential unit’s mixed tenure business had a £600 million-plus (US$796.1 million) pipeline, Kier 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
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
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