UNITED STATES
Mnuchin reassures creditors
Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin on Friday said the nation’s debt ceiling would be raised next month and that after talks with congressional leaders from both parties, everyone is “on the same page.” “My strong preference is that we have a clean debt ceiling [increase], but the most important issue is the debt ceiling will be raised in September,” Mnuchin told reporters at the White House, indicating an interest in legislation that did not stray into unrelated territory. “I have had discussions with the leaders in both parties in the House and Senate and we are all on the same page,” he added.
SINGAPORE
Electronics output surges
Electronics output surged almost 50 percent last month from a year earlier, underpinning overall manufacturing nationally and signaling a global trade recovery is holding up, the latest government statistics released on Friday showed. Industrial production rose 21 percent, the fastest pace in seven months, beating all 17 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The electronics cluster, which includes products such as semiconductors, computer inputs and data storage, makes up almost one-third of overall manufacturing.
CZECH REPUBLIC
entral bank request denied
The central bank will not get the power over the country’s mortgage market it wanted to deflate a bubble it sees developing in the housing market. Lawmakers on Friday dropped a bill that would have extended the authority of the Czech National Bank, citing the approach of parliamentary elections set for Oct. 20 to Oct. 21. The central bank has repeatedly said that property prices seem overvalued and recommended banks adjust lending policies accordingly. The subject surfaced in a meeting on Aug. 3 at which it decided to raise interest rates for the first time since 2008.
TECHNOLOGY
Infosys appoints new chair
The India-based outsourcing and information technology giant Infosys Ltd has appointed Nandan Nilekani, one of company’s cofounders, as its non-executive chairman. Nilekani’s return to the company follows the resignation last week of then-company chief executive Vishal Sikka following differences with some founders. Nilekani told investors on Friday that he would focus on bringing stability and ensuring there are no discordant voices at India’s second-largest IT firm. Nilekani, who as a 26-year-old founded the company, was chief exective of Infosys from 2002 to 2007.
AUTOMAKERS
GM adresses battery glitch
General Motors Co (GM) has contacted a few hundred buyers of its Chevrolet Bolt electric car to address a battery glitch that can affect propulsion, a spokesman said on Friday. The defect is present in some of the first Bolts that were manufactured and means that a car might say that 128km of electric power remains when the battery will only last for 32km, GM spokesman Chris Bonelli said. The Bolt’s battery problem has turned up in less than 1 percent of the 10,000 vehicles sold since GM launched the Bolt in December last year. The company will replace the batteries on the affected cars, Bonelli said. The Bolt is listed at US$36,620 and is sold in the US, Canada and Mexico.
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