■BANKING
Indian lender cuts rates
State Bank of India, the nation’s biggest state-run lender, cut the interest rates paid on deposits of varying terms by 25 basis points. The rate on term deposits of one year to less than two years was lowered to 7 percent from 7.25 percent, the Mumbai-based bank said on its Web site. Interest on deposits of two years to less than 1,000 days was cut to 7.25 percent from 7.5 percent. The new rates are effective from tomorrow on deposits of less than 10 million rupees (US$210,349), the bank said. State Bank last reduced deposit rates on May 18.
■EMPLOYMENT
Australia braced for losses
Australian workers will suffer more job losses as the global recession spreads, Treasurer Wayne Swan said. “The global recession will continue to batter our economy, and like other nations, we need to brace ourselves for more job losses in Australia,” Swan said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “While we received some good news last week on the housing and confidence front, there is no room for complacency.” The jobless rate rose to 5.7 percent from a revised 5.5 percent last month.
■ELECTRONICS
Cheap retailers prosper
JB Hi-Fi Ltd, an Australian discount electronics retailer, said sellers of low-priced goods are benefiting as the effects of the global recession reduce spending power in the nation. “They’re growing and growing comfortably at this part of the cycle,” chairman Patrick Elliott said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp yesterday. “One of the great things about the discount end of the market is that you always remain very, very focused on your costs. That’s been, I think, a real success, certainly for JB Hi-Fi.”
■ELECTRICITY
S Korea power sales drop
Electricity sales to South Korean industrial companies fell in May as automakers and oil refiners cut production because economic growth slowed. Industrial power sales dropped 1.4 percent by volume from a year earlier, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Sales volume declined 4 percent in the first five months of this year. Automakers’ power use fell 17.6 percent and consumption by oil refiners fell 6.7 percent, the ministry said.
■AVIATION
HK passenger traffic falls
Passenger traffic at Hong Kong Airport fell almost 13 percent last month because of the global recession and concerns over the spread of swine flu, the city’s international airport said. Some 3.6 million trips were made from the airport last month, a drop of 12.7 percent from a year earlier, an airport statement said yesterday. The volume of cargo handled declined 17.6 percent. “The prevailing trend in passenger traffic and air-traffic movements is expected to continue and will likely further deteriorate in June,” Airport Authority chief executive officer Stanley Hui (許漢忠) said in the statement.
■AUTOMAKER
US adjusts Chrysler figure
The US Treasury Department said on Friday that a loan it is making to a reorganized Chrysler Group LLC totals US$6.642 billion, instead of the US$6.943 billion that it estimated on May 27. A department official said the initial figure was simply an estimate made last month and that the figure announced on Friday was a final one. Italian automaker Fiat bought most of Chrysler’s assets, but the US and Canadian governments each will end up with small equity stakes in the new company.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft