■ POLAND
Cabinet drafts finance plan
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday his Cabinet had prepared a 24 billion euro (US$31 billion) plan to stabilize the nation’s finances and boost the economy. Tusk said the plan was preventative and that the country was in a “not bad situation despite the crisis.” The plan, which includes credit and deposit guarantees, credits for businesses and paves the way for faster absorption of EU funds, needs approval from parliament. The government already attempted to bolster confidence in the banking sector by guaranteeing deposits up to 50,000 euros. Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said on Sunday the Cabinet also revised its projected GDP growth for next year to 3.7 percent from an earlier estimate of 4.8 percent.
■RUSSIA
Growth forecast slashed
The economic development ministry significantly downgraded next year’s growth forecast, but denied falling oil prices would spark an economic crisis, Ria Novosti news agency reported on Sunday. The economy would grow by between 3 percent and 3.5 percent next year, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach was quoted as saying, far less than the up to 5.7 percent growth predicted by the finance minister last month. Still, “the drop in oil prices to US$50 [a barrel] does not create a crisis,” Klepach was quoted as saying. He also revised downward growth for this year to between 6.8 percent and 7 percent, compared with an earlier estimate of 7.3 percent.
■AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai’s car sales dip
Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea’s largest automaker, said sales last month dropped 1.6 percent from a year earlier as the global economic slump cut vehicle demand. Hyundai sold 234,211 Elantra small cars, Sonata sedans and other models last month, the fewest in three months, compared with 237,941 last year, the Seoul-based carmaker said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Domestic sales tumbled 34 percent while sales out of South Korea rose 8.2 percent. Hyundai is cutting output at domestic factories and in the US as fewer customers are buying new cars amid tighter credit and economic contraction.
■OIL
Exxon retains LNG forecast
Exxon Mobil Corp is keeping its forecast of 4 percent demand growth for liquefied natural gas (LNG) until 2030 even as the global economy contracts, said Peter Graham, manager of the company’s Papua New Guinea LNG project. Exxon expects to award an engineering contract for the facility in the second half of next year and seek long-term leases for its gas tanker supply in the first quarter, Graham said at a conference in Sydney yesterday. LNG is natural gas chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one six-hundredth of its original volume, for transportation by tanker to destinations not connected by pipeline.
■FINANCE
Zurich Financial buys firms
Zurich Financial Services AG, Switzerland’s biggest insurer, completed its purchase of two Brazilian insurers from Banco Mercantil do Brasil SA. Zurich Financial’s Brazilian unit took an 87 percent stake in Companhia de Seguros Minas Brasil and full control of Minas Brasil Seguradora Vida e Previdencia SA, the Zurich-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The Swiss insurer agreed to buy the two companies for 286 million reais (US$124.1 million) in July.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from