■ INDIA
Inflation slowing
Inflation cooled to a six-month low last month, providing central bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao room to temper the pace of monetary tightening after four interest-rate increases in five months. Bonds pared losses. The benchmark wholesale price index rose 9.97 percent from a year earlier, after a 10.55 percent gain in June, the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday. The median estimate of 21 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 10.4 percent jump. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said late last month that he expected inflation to ease to 6 percent by December. Inflation is slowing because of a decline in food costs, which are making up for higher fuel prices, according to Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at Crisil Ltd, the Indian unit of Standard and Poor’s.
■ RETAIL
H&M sales up 10 percent
Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), Europe’s second-largest clothing retailer, said same-store sales excluding currency moves rose 10 percent last month, the fastest pace in more than two years. Total revenue excluding currency moves rose 21 percent from a year earlier as the retailer increased its stores by 13 percent to 2,066, the company based in Stockholm said on its Web site yesterday. Same-store sales have gained during five of the eight first months of H&M’s fiscal year, which runs through November. H&M, which sells bikini tops for US$4.95, said in June that price cuts in the third quarter may be higher than in the year- earlier period after it was left with more spring garments than it had estimated.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Buick Enclaves recalled
Shanghai General Motors Co (上海通用汽車), GM’s joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp, will recall 9,824 Buick Enclave in China because of problems with their seats, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
■ ELECTRONICS
Samsung donates to R&D
Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips and flat-screen televisions, said yesterday it would establish a US$836 million fund to help South Korean contractors. It said the “mutual development” fund would be set up jointly with Industrial Bank of Korea and was aimed at helping contractors receive low-interest loans for research and development from October. Samsung said it would contribute 200 billion won (US$169 million), with up to 800 billion won coming from the state-controlled bank. The move came a day after South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak called for a “fair society” and urged big firms to share profits with contractors or small firms.
■BREWING
Tsingtao net profit up 30%
China’s leading beer maker Tsingtao Brewery (青島酒廠) said yesterday first-half net profit soared nearly 30 percent on year, as it cast its eye around for potential merger and acquisition opportunities. The nation’s oldest brewery said strong sales of its draft, bottled and canned beer as well as more efficient operations underpinned the 29.7 percent jump in net profit to 830 million yuan (US$122 million). Revenue in the first six months rose 9.3 percent year-on-year to 9.8 billion yuan, Tsingtao said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The company also improved its supply chain, cut purchasing costs and improved production capacity, the statement said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2