■RETAIL
German sales slip 1.8%
German retail sales slipped 1.8 percent in June from the previous month, disappointing expectations for a slight increase, provisional data released on Monday by the national statistics office showed. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had penciled in a modest rise of 0.5 percent for the biggest European economy. In May, sales fell 1.3 percent after gaining 1.4 percent in April, figures from the Destatis office showed. The office based its estimate for June on seven German states that represent around 76 percent of the country’s total retail sales. On a 12-month basis, sales shed 1.6 percent at constant prices, Destatis said in a statement.
■RETAIL
Metro bounces back
Germany’s biggest retailer, Metro, on Monday reported a second-quarter profit despite a drop in sales. Metro AG said it had reversed a 453 million euro (US$645.3 million) loss in the second quarter last year to post a net profit of 48 million euros in the three months to the end of June. Metro, which has operations in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern and Western Europe, said it was retaining its medium-term sales and earnings forecasts. This, despite the group reporting a 3.8 percent fall in revenue to 15.3 billion euros, with revenue hit by lower food prices and a weak performance by currencies in Eastern Europe.
■TELECOMS
CEO dies after triathlon
Calvin Lee, chief executive officer for Asia at Deutsche Telekom AG, died after he took part in a triathlon in Singapore yesterday, a company official said. Lee, 42, was pronounced dead at the Changi General Hospital at 2.35pm, the Straits Times reported. Paramedics and doctors failed to revive Lee after he was rescued from the sea during the swim segment of the Osim Singapore International Triathlon, the newspaper said. The cause of death is being investigated, the Singapore newspaper cited the organizers as saying.
■FINLAND
Trade surplus continues
The country posted its second consecutive trade surplus in May as falling orders prompted companies to cut output and import fewer raw materials. The surplus was 92 million euros, compared with a surplus of 683 million euros the month before and a surplus of 186 million euros a year earlier, Finnish Customs said on its Web site yesterday. The country’s industry, which has seen output plunge more than 20 percent in four out of five months this year, is purchasing fewer raw materials abroad, causing both imports and exports to drop. New industrial orders plummeted an annual 40 percent in May. Exports plunged 41 percent to 3.43 billion euros in May from a year earlier, the same as the decline in imports, which fell to 3.34 billion euros.
■ELECTRONICS
Panasonic books net loss
Japan’s Panasonic Corp yesterday announced a net loss of ¥52.98 billion (US$560 million) for the second quarter, blaming weak sales of electronic goods during the recession. Panasonic, which made a profit of ¥73.03 billion in the same period last year, left unchanged its forecast for a loss of ¥195 billion in the full business year to next March. The group, which changed its corporate name from Matsushita Electric Industrial in October, is cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants as it struggles to recover from its first annual loss in six years.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
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