UNITED KINGDOM
Consumer confidence dives
Consumer confidence fell at the fastest pace in 22 years after last month’s decision by voters to leave the EU, according to a survey by market research company GfK cited by the Daily Telegraph newspaper. The survey said consumer morale fell to minus nine in the aftermath of the June 23 vote down from minus one in its previous monthly survey, representing the biggest drop in confidence since December 1994.
GERMANY
Trade surplus shrinks
The trade surplus shrank in May as exports declined unexpectedly, official data showed on Friday, pointing to possible clouds on the horizon for Europe’s biggest economy. Exports declined by 1.8 percent to 99.5 billion euros (US$110 billion) in seasonally adjusted terms in May, according to data published by the federal statistics office Destatis. At the same time, imports edged up by 0.1 percent to 77.4 billion euros. That meant that the trade surplus contracted sharply to 22.2 billion euros in May from 24.1 billion euros in April, the statisticians calculated.
INDIA
Government to sell stakes
The government has invited bids from bankers for sale of its stakes in companies such as ITC Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd and Axis Bank Ltd, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks to boost revenues and shrink Asia’s widest budget deficit. Holding company Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India will appoint as many as three merchant bankers to advise on transactions involving 51 companies over three years, it said on its Web site. The government has not set a target for such sales.
CHINA
Beijing pushes for closures
Beijing has threatened to punish regional governments for failing to close unneeded coal mines and steel mills. Provincial governments must set capacity reduction targets by Friday next week and submit detailed phase-out plans by the end of this month, said Xu Shaoshi (徐紹史), chairman of National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top economic planner, according to a report by official Xinhua News Agency. About 800,000 coal and steel jobs are expected to be cut this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said separately on Friday.
CHINA
Car sales pick up
Passenger-vehicle sales expanded at a faster pace in the first half, as rising demand for SUVs and new-energy vehicles widened the nation’s lead as the world’s biggest car market. Retail sales of cars, sport utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles climbed 9.5 percent to 10.8 million units in the January to June period, according to the China Passenger Car Association. One segment that was an exception to the growth trend was mini commercial vehicles, with sales falling 34 percent to 374,208 units in the first half.
healthcare
Theranos CEO banned
Theranos Inc’s chief executive officer Elizabeth Holmes was banned for two years from owning or operating laboratories as part of US regulators’ sanctions against the troubled blood-testing start-up. The once high-flying Silicon Valley start-up was also penalized for an undisclosed amount and lost its eligibility to get payments from federal health insurance programs for lab services, according to a statement on Thursday from Theranos.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last