GERMANY
Berlin eyes spending boost
Germany plans to boost government spending by a total of more than 38 billion euros (US$40.56 billion) by 2021 without straying from its goal of keeping a balanced budget, according to a Federal Ministry of Finance draft document seen by reporters on Friday. Under the plan, spending is to rise to 355.6 billion euros in 2021 from last year’s 317.4 billion euros. However, with tax revenues expected to keep rising and borrowing costs to remain low, the document does not foresee the need for new net borrowing.
MACROECONOMICS
US government posts deficit
The US federal government ran another budget deficit last month, spared in part by slow tax refund processing. The US Department of the Treasury on Friday reported that the deficit came in at US$192 billion last month, little-changed from the US$192.6 billion deficit in the same period last year. This year’s budget hole would have been deeper, but the US Internal Revenue Service is required by a new law to delay refunds to those who file for the earned income tax credit while it looks for fraud. For the first five months of this fiscal year, the deficit totaled US$349 billion, a fall from last year’s US$351.3 billion during the same period.
PRODUCTIVITY
UK’s industrial output falls
Britain’s industrial output recoiled in January as the nation prepares to exit the EU, official data showed on Friday. Industrial output slid 0.4 percent compared with activity in December last year, with a particularly weak contribution from manufacturing, the British Office for National Statistics said in a statement. Manufacturing output, which excludes mining and quarrying, electricity, gas and water supply, slid 0.9 percent from January to December, while construction activity also shrank by 0.4 percent month-on-month, the office said.
OIL
Panel backs Venezuela
A World Bank panel has overturned part of a ruling ordering Venezuela to pay US$1.4 billion to Exxon Mobil in compensation for nationalizing a company project 10 years ago. The Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes agreed with Venezuela’s argument appealing the case and overturned part of the decision it had taken in 2014. Exxon had originally sought US$12 billion in compensation over the loss of what it said it had already invested and what it expected to reap from the Cerro Negro project.
COFFEE
Vietnam firm plans IPO
Vietnam National Coffee Corp, the nation’s largest state-owned robusta producer, is planning an initial public offering (IPO) next year as the government reduces its stake in the company. The IPO is to include Vinacafe and 18 units, company deputy director-general Nguyen Van Minh said. The valuation process is expected to start in July, Minh said. Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of the robusta beans used in instant coffee. The country’s annual coffee exports are estimated to be between US$2.5 billion and US$3 billion, said Do Ha Nam, vice head of the Vietnam Coffee Cocoa Association and chairman of Intimex Group, the country’s top exporter.
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