TRADE
US-Japan pact to be ‘model’
Japan and the US are to negotiate a trade agreement that would serve as a “model” for the Indo-Pacific, US Vice President Mike Pence said yesterday in Tokyo. “The United States has had a trade imbalance with Japan for too long. American products and services too often face barriers to compete fairly in Japanese markets,” he said after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “The best opportunity for free, fair and reciprocal trade will come in a bilateral trade agreement.” Abe and US President Donald Trump in September agreed to negotiate such a pact. “When completed we’re confident that this agreement will establish terms on goods and services,” Pence said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
UNITED STATES
Fed official urges rate hike
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said US policymakers ought to be gradually lifting interest rates to bring an economy that is running above potential in for a soft landing. “It wouldn’t be surprising to me that we would need to go up again in December and at least a couple of times next year,” Daly told Bloomberg News on Monday in her first interview on policy since she became head of the Fed branch on Oct. 1. That would be enough to get to her estimate of neutral. “In my modal expectation, I think that’s something that will be needed,” she said. Daly later told reporters following a speech in Idaho Falls, Idaho, that she was not set on a move next month in particular. She said two to three rate increases would be appropriate over the next “period of time,” but the timing remains to be seen.
TELECOMS
Flat dividend for Vodafone
Vodafone Group PLC has suspended a pledge to keep dividends growing as it tries to rein in debt after the US$22 billion acquisition of Liberty Global PLC’s German and Eastern European units. Vodafone announced a flat interim dividend and said its full-year payout would also be unchanged from last year. It would consider increasing the dividend over the long term once it meets its debt ratio target. Investors have been bracing for a potential change to dividend policy under new chief executive Nick Read as the Liberty deal stretches its leverage. Read said he would reduce operating costs by 1.2 billion euros (US$1.35 billion) by 2021 and review its tower assets to drive returns after its organic revenue grew by 0.8 percent in the first half of the year.
ECONOMY
IMF sees Gulf recovery
Economic growth in the energy-rich Persian Gulf region will recover this year from a contraction last year, but remains vulnerable to volatility in crude oil prices, the IMF said yesterday. The fund predicted that an overall energy price recovery from 2015-2016 lows would spur the economies of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to grow by 2.4 percent this year and 3 percent next year, after a contraction of 0.4 percent last year. The council states together pump over 17 million barrels per day and depend heavily on crude revenues. Growth in non-council oil exporters in MENA, which includes Iran, Iraq, Algeria and Libya, is projected to slow to 0.3 percent this year, from 3 percent last year and pick up modestly to 0.9 percent next year, the IMF said.
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