■ ECONOMY
IMF fears negative growth
Global economic growth could dip below zero for the first time in decades this year, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said yesterday. “The IMF expects global growth to slow below zero this year, the worst performance in most of our lifetimes,” he said at the opening of a conference in Tanzania on the impact of the world financial crisis on Africa. “Continued deleveraging by world financial institutions, combined with a collapse in consumer and business confidence is depressing domestic demand across the world,” he said. Last month he said he expected zero growth this year.
■ CHINA
CPI fell 1.6% last month
Consumer prices dropped for the first time in more than six years, the government said yesterday, adding to worries about how the world’s third-largest economy is weathering the global slowdown. With the cost of food, clothing and fuel declining, the consumer price index — the main gauge of inflation — dropped 1.6 percent last month from a year earlier, the first such fall since December 2002. In the first two months of the year the consumer price index was down 0.3 percent from the same period last year, the national statistics bureau said. The State Information Center, a government think-tank, forecast that the consumer price index would fall 1 percent in the first quarter.
■ UTILITIES
EON cuts earnings goals
The biggest German power company, EON, has cut its earnings goals for next year because of the global economic crisis, and warned that its net profit could fall this year. EON now expects to make a core operating profit next year of around 11 billion euros (US$14 billion), down from a previous forecast of 12.4 billion euros, it said in a group statement late on Monday. The revision is mainly due to lower expected sales of gas and electricity, negative effects from German legislation on power distribution networks, and unfavorable foreign exchange effects, it said. EON expects core earnings this year to be stable compared with last year, but sees its net profit falling by 10 percent.
■ JAPAN
Fuji Heavy forecasts big loss
Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru brand vehicles, said yesterday that it was on course for a bigger than expected annual loss because of the collapse of a key customer. Fuji Heavy, which is part owned by Toyota Motor Corp, revised its net loss forecast to ¥23 billion (US$232 million) for the year through this month from ¥19 billion. It would be the company’s first year in the red since 1994, and follows a net profit of ¥18.5 billion last year. The auto and aerospace company left its operating loss projection unchanged at ¥9 billion, blaming the worsening bottom line on the bankruptcy of Eclipse Aviation Corp, an important trading partner.
■ FAST FOOD
McDonald’s takes double hit
McDonald’s Corp posted higher comparable sales on Monday but warned that the stronger dollar and higher commodity costs may take some of the meat out of its first-quarter sales and profit. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based fast-food chain said quarterly sales will likely be off by at least US$600 million and earnings could be hurt by US$0.07 to US$0.09 per share if foreign-currency rates stay at current levels. It said higher commodity costs could also hurt its quarterly results, but did not offer investors an indication about the extent of that hit.
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