BRAZIL
Interest rates cut again
The central bank on Wednesday slashed interest rates to a record low for the second time in less than two months, as Latin America’s biggest economy struggles to grow. The bank cut its main rate from the previous historic low of 6 percent to 5.5 percent, citing risks of a “more intense slowdown in the global economy.” The nation avoided slipping back into recession in the second quarter after its economy grew 0.4 percent, compared with the first three months of the year when it shrank 0.1 percent.
NEW ZEALAND
Q2 growth at five-year low
Economic growth slowed to a five-year low in the second quarter, official data released yesterday showed. Statistics New Zealand said the economy expanded 0.5 percent in the April-to-June quarter, versus an expected 0.4 percent, as mining and manufacturing activity weakened. GDP growth rose 2.1 percent from a year earlier, but slowed from the first quarter’s 2.5 percent to become the weakest annual growth since the fourth quarter of 2013.
TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft eyes buyback
Microsoft Corp, the world’s largest software maker, said it would repurchase as much as US$40 billion of shares in a new buyback program and boosted its quarterly dividend by US$0.05 to US$0.51 a share. The repurchase authorization has no expiration date, and could be terminated at any time, Microsoft said on Wednesday in a statement. The company’s stock has risen 36 percent so far this year and its market capitalization remains at more than US$1 trillion.
BEVERAGES
Diageo forecasts organics
Spirits maker Diageo PLC yesterday said that it was “not immune” to changes in global trade policies. The Johnnie Walker whisky and Tanqueray gin maker said it continues to expect organic net sales growth to be toward the mid-point of a 4 to 6 percent range and organic operating profit to grow about 1 percentage point ahead of organic net sales. The company also said it expects first-half organic operating profit growth to be in line with or slightly behind organic net sales growth, due to stronger prior year comparables.
AVIATION
Boycott hurts Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways hit turbulence on Wednesday, posting a net loss of US$639 million for the year to March, which it blamed on key markets closing their airspace to Doha. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt have enforced an economic boycott of Qatar since June 2017. It was “a challenging year and while it is disappointing that [the group] has registered a net loss of 2.3 billion Qatari riyals — attributable to the loss of mature routes, higher fuel costs and foreign exchange fluctuations — the underlying fundamentals of our business remain extremely robust,” the airline said.
MANUFACTURING
Airbus faces spying probe
German prosecutors have opened an investigation into suspected internal spying by employees of European aviation giant Airbus over two arms projects, sources said on Wednesday. The suspicions arose “a few weeks ago,” and the company has alerted the authorities in Munich, an Airbus source said. “Some of our employees had documents that they shouldn’t have had,” the source said. The staff work in the Munich-based Program Line Communications, Intelligence and Security, which handles cybersecurity and related activities.
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