SOUTH AFRICA
Simple inflation goal needed
It would be simpler to aim for a single-point inflation target, Monetary Policy Committee member Fundi Tshazibana has said. It would mean there is “no confusion about the number — if it’s 3 percent, it’s 3 percent; we know we are working toward 3 percent,” Tshazibana, who joined the committee in February, said at a forum on Tuesday in Pretoria. While the South African Reserve Bank has targeted inflation of 3 percent to 6 percent, in line with a government mandate, the committee has over the past few months made it clear that it prefers price growth expectations close to the middle of the range. Inflation slowed to an almost three-year low of 4 percent in February.
TRADE
Negotiated solution ‘likely’
Global rating agencies Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings Inc yesterday said the proposed US tariffs would have limited direct impact on China’s economy and a negotiated solution is most likely. Moody’s said it expects the US and China to prevent a significant escalation in their trade dispute based on the negative impact the restrictions would have on both economies. “Trade has made a smaller contribution to China’s GDP growth in recent years and, combined with a changing trade structure, China’s direct vulnerability to potential trade shocks has declined,” Moody’s said in a report.
RETAIL
Tesco returns to profitability
British retail king Tesco PLC rebounded into annual net profit on strong sales and restructuring, the group said yesterday, as its recovery continued after a costly accounting scandal the prior year. The supermarket giant said in a statement that earnings after taxation rebounded sharply to £1.2 billion (US$1.7 billion) in its financial year to February. That contrasted with a net loss of £40 million in the previous fiscal year. Excluding exceptional items, operating or underlying profit jumped 28 percent to £1.6 billion, in line with company forecasts and after a major restructuring overseen by CEO Dave Lewis.
AUTOMAKERS
Minister denies diesel fund
German Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure Andreas Scheuer on Tuesday denied that the government was considering setting up a joint fund with automakers to pay for exhaust systems to make diesel cars cleaner, citing legal and technical concerns about retrofitting older cars. Scheuer told newspaper Passauer Neue Presse that there had not yet been any discussion about funding, and he remained committed to meeting emissions targets using measures already being implemented and without costly hardware retrofits. “The discussion about hardware retrofits is not appropriate at this point, and definitely not with the participation of taxpayers,” he told the newspaper.
RIDE-HAILING
Uber unveils new driver app
Uber Technologies Inc on Tuesday unveiled a new app for its drivers that includes a real-time earnings tracker, the latest effort by the ride-hailing service to improve an often contentious relationship. The move follows Uber’s “180 days of change” program that was launched in June last year to make changes requested by drivers, such as tipping and compensation for the time spent waiting for passengers. “We needed to think longer term and the obvious place to start was the driver app,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.
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