■ Interest rates
Lending rate hike expected
China is expected to raise its one-year benchmark lending rate to 5.76 percent from 5.04 percent next month, but will keep the 1.98 percent benchmark deposit rate unchanged, state media said Tuesday. "We've received official notice to raise the lending rate but to keep the deposit rate unchanged," an official from a major commercial bank told the Securities Market Weekly, which is affiliated with the country's securities regulator. The hike is expected to come during the October National Day holidays, it said. China's central bank has been facing mounting pressure to raise rates with the consumer price index rising 3.6 percent in the second quarter from 2.8 perccent in the first three months. However, the central bank has refrained for fear of attracting speculative "hot money" and adding to the pressure for appreciation of the local currency.
■ Aeronautics
Airbus plans new aircraft
Airbus will launch a new aircraft program by early 2006 once it passes the peak of development spending for the new A380 superjumbo passenger jet, chief executive Noel Forgeard said on Monday. "The slowest timeframe would be the launch of a market study in early 2005 for an industrial launch in early 2006, but that could happen more quickly," Forgeard said. Forgeard, however, declined to say whether the new program was related to the range of aircraft capable of carrying 250 to 300 passengers. It is in that capacity range that US arch-rival Boeing intends to compete with Airbus's A330-200s in 2008 with its fuel-efficient new 7E7 Dreamliner jet. Airbus outstripped Boeing last year for the first time in terms of aircraft deliveries.
■ Foreign exchange
Japan reserves peak again
Japan's foreign exchange reserves hit a record high last month at US$827.95 billion, the finance ministry announced yesterday. The previous record high was the US$826.58 billion logged in March. August's figure was up US$8.75 billion from July, rising for a fourth straight month. The ministry attributed the rise to investment returns from foreign bonds.
■ Retailing
Foreign firms face new rule
Thailand said yesterday that global retailers will only be allowed to set up new hypermarkets in the country if they promote Thai handicrafts at their stores worldwide. The government said demonstration farms would also have to be established in Thai villages before foreign-owned chains were allowed to expand, a government spokesman told reporters. The demands were prompted by concerns that small Thai-run shops were being squeezed out of the market by foreign giants headed by British chain Tesco and French group Carrefour. "From now on, any retailers who want new branches in Thailand must set up a demonstration farm for agricultural produce to sell and they must set up Thai handicraft counters in their overseas branches," government spokesman Jakrapob Penkhair told reporters after a Cabinet meeting in northeast Thailand. The proposal came out of a meeting on Monday between Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the president of the Carrefour Group, Daniel Bernard. Carrefour currently has 19 outlets across the country.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary