■ INTEREST RATES
Thailand raises key rate
Thailand raised its benchmark interest rate yesterday for a second consecutive month after an unexpectedly strong performance by its economy in the face of deadly political unrest. The Bank of Thailand (BOT) raised its main lending rate by 25 basis points to 1.75 percent, following a quarter-point hike last month — the first in almost two years. “The Thai economy expanded faster than expected in the second quarter, despite decelerating somewhat from the first quarter due to [the] domestic political situation,” BOT Assistant Governor Paiboon Kittisrikangwan said. “Exports have been growing in tandem with global economic recovery, although the pace of growth is expected to slow down in the second half of the year,” he said.
■ GERMANY
Business confidence up
Business confidence posted a surprise rise this month, rising to 106.7 points on a key index from 106.2 points last month, the Ifo economic research institute said yesterday. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast on average a slight decline to 106 points following a record rise of 4.4 points last month. The latest survey was released a day after official data confirmed Europe’s biggest economy grew 2.2 percent in the second quarter from the previous three-month period, the biggest quarterly increase since east and west Germany were reunified in October 1990.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota aiming high
Toyota Motor Corp said yesterday it wanted to reach cumulative sales of 5 million hybrid vehicles in the early part of this decade. Toyota, the pioneer in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, said earlier this month it had sold more than 2.68 million hybrid vehicles globally since it launched the first model in 1997. Toyota has a goal of selling at least 1 million hybrid vehicles a year in the early part of this decade, and plans to introduce a hybrid option across its whole lineup as early as possible in the 2020s.
■ BREWERIES
Heineken’s profits rise
The Dutch brewer Heineken NV said yesterday its first-half net profit rose 42 percent on a mix of factors, including cost cutting, positive currency effects and one-time gains. Net profit was 695 million euros (US$881 million), up from 489 million euros in the same period a year earlier. This year’s figures include a net 121 million euros in exceptional gains, mostly due to the sale of Heineken’s 68.5 percent stake in an Indonesian subsidiary to Asia Pacific Breweries for 157 million euros. Heineken’s sales rose 5.2 percent to 7.52 billion euros, mostly due to its US$7.8 billion acquisition in April of Mexico’s Femsa.
■ AVIATION
Mergers rising: Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the German airline that acquired three European carriers last year, said industry mergers combining partners from different parts of the world would rise as companies seek higher margins. “The trend toward consolidation will become more intercontinental in the next years than is currently the case,” Stefan Lauer, the head of Lufthansa’s subsidiary airline brands including Austrian Airlines and British Midland, told reporters in Frankfurt on Tuesday. “It remains an exciting topic.” The German carrier is confident of reaching earnings goals this year as some divisions beat forecasts, Lauer said, without being more specific. The Cologne-based company has a target for operating profit to exceed last year’s 130 million euros as sales increase.
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
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
‘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)