■ INFLATION
UAE feels inflation pain
United Arab Emirates (UAE) inflation accelerated to a record 10.9 percent last year, threatening growth in the second-largest Arab economy, the Abu Dhabi Department of Planning and Economy said yesterday. Consumer prices accelerated from 9.3 percent in 2006, the report said, citing estimates from the UAE Economy Ministry. The UAE reports inflation annually. The components of inflation were not reported. “The persistence of high rates of inflation may reflect negatively on the domestic business environment,” the report said. Inflation has accelerated to records across the Middle East as oil-fueled economic growth caused shortages of real estate and services.
■FOOD
Nestle to raise prices
Swiss food giant Nestle SA is unlikely to raise sales prices further in the near term as costs of many ingredients have already peaked, the company’s chairman said yesterday. “You are now seeing the impact of price increases which were done some months ago,” Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. “I would expect this to flatten out over the next several months and not increase anymore as our costs have come down,” he said. Brabeck-Letmathe, who recently stepped down as chief executive of the Switzerland-based food-product maker, said “the worst is probably past” for prices of raw materials such as coffee, cocoa and milk.
■INTERNET
Microsoft’s final offer shown
Microsoft Corp made a final proposal to Yahoo Inc before the Internet company forged an agreement with rival Google Inc, offering to buy US$8 billion in Yahoo shares at US$35 each and acquire its search-engine business. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, would have paid US$1 billion for the search unit, president Kevin Johnson said on Friday in an e-mail to employees. The discussions were the most recent round of talks that began with an unsolicited bid for the whole company on Jan. 31. The deal would generate more revenue for three years than what Yahoo gets from its own ad system, Johnson said.
■POLLUTION
China No. 1 polluter
China tops the list of carbon-dioxide emitting countries, followed by the US, the 15 oldest EU members and India. China’s carbon dioxide emissions accounted for two-thirds of last year’s global increase of 3.1 percent, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, based in Bilthoven, said in a statement on its Web site on Friday. China now accounts for almost a quarter of global emissions, followed by the US with 21 percent, the EU-15 countries (12 percent) and India (8 percent), preliminary estimates by the Dutch agency showed.
■COMPUTERS
Medica heads for Compal
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s second-largest maker of notebook computers, named a former Dell Inc executive as vice chairman. John Medica, 49, will take up the newly created post as well as the position of corporate advisor, Taipei-based Compal said in a statement yesterday. His role will include product planning. Medica retired from Dell last year after 14 years at the Round Rock, Texas-based company, where he was senior vice president of products, Compal said. He also worked at Apple Inc for 10 years. Compal makes computers for Dell, the world’s third-largest branded notebook supplier, as well as Hewlett-Packard Co and Acer Inc.
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Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
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