UNITED STATES
Deficit hits February record
The federal government posted a record budget deficit last month, pushing the overall deficit for the first five months of the budget year up 39 percent from a year earlier. The Department of the Treasury said in its monthly report that the deficit hit an all-time high of US$234 billion. That surpasses the old February deficit record of US$232 billion set in 2012. For the first five months of this budget year, the deficit totals US$544.2 billion. Last week, the administration projected that this year’s deficit would total US$1.09 trillion.
ECONOMY
Indian rules delayed again
India delayed the introduction of new accounting rules for the second year running, in a move that will spare the country’s banks from adding another layer to the US$190 billion pile of bad loans on their books. The Reserve Bank of India on Friday said that legislative amendments needed to implement the new Indian Accounting Standards are still under consideration by the Indian government. “Accordingly, it has been decided to delay the implementation” of the rules “until further notice,” the central bank said.
SPAIN
Worker plan approved
The Cabinet on Friday approved a plan to persuade some of the roughly 1 million workers who left the country during its 2008 to 2013 economic slump to return home. Among the 50 measures included in the two-year plan are scholarships and grants for scientific researchers and lower social security payments for selected workers, the government said in a statement after the Cabinet approved the program.
TURKEY
Reserves fall explained
A recent fall in the central bank’s foreign currency reserves stemmed from sales of forex to energy-importing firms and a foreign debt payment, worth US$5.3 billion in total, a central bank official said on Friday. The official said the fall in reserves was not extraordinary and that the bank maintained a policy of accumulating reserves. However, the central bank said it would suspend its one-week lira repo auctions after the currency led a retreat among emerging market peers on Friday.
ELECTRONICS
Apple upbeat over economy
Apple Inc chief executive officer Tim Cook yesterday said he is “extremely bullish” about the global economy based on the amount of innovation being carried out and urged China to continue to “open up.” In a speech at an economic forum in Beijing, Cook said Apple is less concerned with the short-term economic outlook, because the tech giant makes investments looking ahead years or decades. Apple reported a revenue drop of 26 percent in the greater China region during the quarter ending in December last year.
MINING
Storms halt operations
Global miners BHP Group and Glencore PLC halted output at energy and metals operations across Australia as two cyclones simultaneously approached the coast for the first time since 2015. BHP stopped output at the Pyrenees oil project off Western Australia as cyclone Veronica tracked toward a hub of liquefied natural gas and iron-ore export operations. In the north, cyclone Trevor has already made landfall.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure