FINANCE
Greece could default: Knot
The president of the Dutch central bank said in a newspaper interview published yesterday that he no longer rules out the possibility that Greece may not be able to pay back its crippling government debt. A Greek default “is one of the scenarios,” Klaas Knot said in an interview published in the Dutch newspaper Het Financieel Dagblad. “I won’t say that Greece cannot default,” said Knot, who is the recently installed president of De Nederlandsche Bank and a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank. Knot’s comments are unusual because they come from a member of the European Central Bank’s 23-member governing council. The bank has insisted Greece must stick with its bailout plan and has opposed default as a solution.
ECONOMY
Singapore inflation surges
Singapore’s inflation jumped to a three-year high last month as housing and transportation costs rose despite an economic slowdown. The Statistics Department said yesterday that the consumer price index rose 5.7 percent last month from a year earlier, the most since October 2008. That compares with a year-on-year rise of 5.4 percent in July. The department said housing prices climbed 9.9 percent last month from a year earlier, while transport costs surged 12.5 percent. The city-state’s economy grew 0.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. The government expects GDP to expand as little as 5 percent this year, compared with 15 percent growth last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Isuzu to make trucks in PRC
Isuzu Motors will develop large trucks with its Chinese partner, as Japanese truckmakers shift their focus toward growing markets in the rest of Asia, a report said yesterday. The new project will involve Qingling Motors (Group) Co (慶鈴汽車集團), the Chinese firm that Isuzu works with to produce light and midsize trucks, the Nikkei Shimbun daily said. The new trucks, which will evolve from Isuzu’s heavy-duty Giga series, are expected to go on sale in China and Japan around 2015, it added. It said the Chinese market for large trucks stands at more than 1 million units a year, compared with roughly 30,000 in Japan.
SPORTSWEAR
Nike profits rise 15 percent
Nike Inc reported its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 15 percent as demand grew for its sneakers and athletic apparel in nearly every market worldwide despite an uncertain global economy. Nike said sales improved in nearly all markets, including strong gains in the US and emerging markets like India and China. Overall, its revenue rose 18 percent to US$6.08 billion, with particularly strong performance in its running, basketball and women’s training business. As a result, Nike earned US$645 million, or US$1.36 per share, for the quarter that ended Aug. 31, up from US$559 million, or US$1.17 per share, in the same quarter last year.
INTERNET
Alibaba attracts investors
DST Global and Temasek Holdings Pte are among investors that agreed to buy shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) in a transaction valuing China’s largest e-commerce company at US$32 billion, two people familiar with the deal said. Silver Lake and Alibaba chairman Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Yunfeng Capital are also part of the group buying as much as US$1.6 billion stock from Alibaba employees, said the people, who asked not to be named because terms of the agreement were private.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
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