SWITZERLAND
Economy stagnated in Q3
The economy failed to grow for the first time in more than a year in the third quarter, held back by weak domestic demand and the first fall in government spending since early 2014. The stagnation followed expansion of 0.6 percent in the three months through June, and fell short of the 0.3 percent growth forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey. The statistics office said the weak performance was not a sign of the recovery being thrown off course. The Swiss National Bank is to issue its first take on growth for next year at its policy assessment on Dec. 15. Its most recent forecast, issued in September, was for growth of approximately 1.5 percent for this year.
FINANCIAL LAW
Ricci appeals fraud sentence
The heiress to the fortune of French couturier Nina Ricci on Thursday launched an appeal to avoid jail time for tax fraud, in one of the toughest sentences of its kind in French fiscal history. Arlette Ricci, 75, was handed a one-year prison term and a 1 million euro (US$1.05 million) fine in April last year for allegedly hiding 18.7 million euros from the taxman for more than two decades. Proceedings at a Paris appeal court focused on minor questions of law filed by Ricci’s lawyers, and the defendant herself was absent.
TRADE
Egypt increases tariffs
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has imposed a second increase of tariffs on hundreds of imported products. The Gazette published al-Sisi’s decree on Thursday with a long list of more than 350 items including fruits, foods, perfumes, furniture and other items where customs duties increased between 40 and 60 percent. This is the second time this year the Egyptian government has raised taxes on what it described as luxury commodities.
SHIPPING
Maersk to buy Hamburg Sud
The container shipping unit of Danish conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk on Thursday said it had agreed to buy German peer Hamburg Sud, as the industry consolidates amid a downturn. Part of the family-owned Oetker Group, Hamburg Sud operates 130 container vessels and is the world’s seventh-largest container shipping line, with US$6.73 billion in revenue last year. The acquisition takes Maersk Line’s global capacity share from 15.7 percent to 18.6 percent.
BANKING
Mexican banker to head BIS
The head of Mexico’s central bank on Thursday said he is resigning to become the new general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Switzerland. Banco de Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens said in a statement that he had submitted his resignation to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto effective on July 1 next year. He is to assume his new position on Oct. 1 next year. The BIS is the bank for the world’s central bankers. Carstens is to be the first central banker from a developing nation to hold the position.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter names product head
Twitter Inc appointed Keith Coleman, founder of start-up Yes Inc, as head of its product team, the third executive to lead the division in less than a year. The micro-blogging service said it has acquired Yes, the maker of apps such as Frenzy and WYD-What you doing, which allows users to connect with their friends. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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