■SEMICONDUCTORS
Hynix to settle lawsuit
Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world’s second-largest computer-memory maker, agreed with Unisys Corp to settle an antitrust lawsuit in a US court. Unisys had filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, in September 2006, seeking damages for alleged price collusion, the South Korean company said today in a regulatory filing.
■FASHION
Clothing retailer profit down
Inditex, Europe’s biggest clothing retailer and owner of the Zara brand, reported yesterday a 16 percent drop in first-quarter net profit as consumers cut spending in the economic downturn. In the three months to April, the company earned a net profit of 184 million euros (US$257 million) compared with 219 million euros on the same year-ago period, the company said in a statement.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Industrial output rises
British industrial output rose unexpectedly in April and for the first time in more than a year, official data showed yesterday, raising the prospect that the economy could exit the recession as early as this quarter. The Office for National Statistics said industrial output, which contributes 18 percent to GDP, rose 0.3 percent on the month — the first increase since February last year. Analysts had expected a fall of 0.1 percent. On the year, industrial production was 12.3 percent lower. Manufacturing output rose 0.2 percent on the month in April, again an unexpected rise and following revised figures showing a similar rise in March, which was the first increase for a year.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Interest rates to remain low
British interest rates could stay low for some time and it is still not clear whether the pick-up in the economy will prove durable, Bank of England (BOE) policymaker Kate Barker was quoted as saying yesterday. “Our present view is that we think rates could stay low for quite some time,” she was quoted as saying on the Leicester Mercury newspaper’s Web site. “The really important question is [whether] there’s a pick up in the economy and if people can sustain that so it continues on to autumn.” The BOE has kept interest rates at a record low of 0.5 percent since March and embarked on a £125 billion (US$204.3 billion) quantitative easing program to help pull Britain out of its first recession since the early 1990s.
■SINGAPORE
Economy to grow 4.2%
The country’s recession-hit economy is expected to grow 4.2 percent next year after a projected sharp contraction this year, a survey of private sector economists released yesterday showed. The survey was carried out last month by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city-state’s central bank, and involved 19 economists and analysts. For this year, GDP is projected to shrink by 6.5 percent.
■GERMANY
Bankruptcies on the rise
German courts have registered 7,712 business bankruptcies in the first three months of this year, a figure that is 10 percent higher than in the first quarter of last year, the federal statistics office said yesterday. But the Destatis office added that the strong increase might be partly the result of calendar effects. With Easter coming in April this year, the courts had more time to record bankruptcies in the first three months than last year, when Easter fell in March, and thus at the end of the first quarter.
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