SWITZERLAND
Growth falls short of forecast
Economic growth accelerated less than forecast at the start of the year as household spending barely rose, though sectors long-blighted by the strong franc bounced back. A 3.9 percent jump in exports in the three months through March helped push economic growth to 0.3 percent. While that fell short of the 0.5 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey, it is still the strongest performance in three quarters. Consumer spending rose just 0.1 percent, a sharp slowdown from the 0.9 percent rate seen at the end of last year. The Swiss National Bank forecasts an inflation rate of 0.3 percent for this year, ending a multiyear spate of falling consumer prices.
BRAZIL
Jobless rate retreats
The nation’s sickly economy got an unexpected glimmer of good news on Wednesday with unemployment figures showing a slight dip to 13.6 percent. It was the first fall in unemployment figures since 2014 and came amid expectations that Latin America’s biggest economy is finally emerging from its worst recession in history. The IBGE state statistics office said that 14 million people were out of work in the February-to-April period, or 13.6 percent of the workforce.
UNITED STATES
Optimistic outlook wanes
Most regions of the nation continue to see modest to moderate growth, but optimism about the economic outlook has waned, partly due to concerns over government policies, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday. Labor shortages, especially for skilled workers, are forcing companies to offer more generous and flexible conditions, but so far that has not translated into worrisome wage pressures, the Fed said in its periodic survey of the economy. The so-called Beige Book prepared ahead of the June 14 and 15 monetary policy meeting did not seem to offer any reports from the frontlines of the economy to alter the widespread expectation that the Fed will raise the benchmark lending rate for the second time this year.
BANKING
Barclays to sell 22% stake
Barclays PLC said it will sell a further 22 percent stake in its South African unit, a holding worth about US$2 billion at current prices, as part of the UK bank’s plan to shrink its operations and bolster capital strength. The London-based lender is offering about 187 million shares of Barclays Africa Group Ltd in an accelerated bookbuild after it received approval from South African authorities, it said on Wednesday. Barclays, which holds 50.1 percent of Barclays Africa, said it has a long-term target of reducing its shareholding in the unit to 15 percent.
APPAREL
Michael Kors to close stores
Michael Kors Holdings PLC plans to close up to 125 stores over the next two years with continued weak sales at its luxury stores. The London company also issued a weak outlook and comparable-store sales were disappointing, sending shares down more than 8 percent on Wednesday. The retailer lost US$26.8 million, or US$0.17 per share, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. Earnings, adjusted for asset impairment costs, were US$0.73 per share. The results topped Wall Street expectations by US$0.03, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research. Revenue fell 11.2 percent to US$1.06 billion, but that, too, edged out expectations.
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
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
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