JAPAN
Minister pans BOJ’s clarity
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) should communicate its inflation goal more clearly, Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Motohisa Furukawa said. “It’s desirable for the BOJ to consider whether there’s a better way for the public to understand its inflation policy,” Furukawa said on NHK’s Sunday Debate program yesterday. The nation’s central bank has avoided setting an explicit inflation goal. Some lawmakers have pushed to revise the country’s law to force the central bank to adopt an inflation target to help conquer more than a decade of falling prices. The BOJ will review whether to begin referring to its so-called price stability understanding as a target during a meeting that begins today, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
STOCK MARKETS
Shares hit Chinese markets
An added 16.09 billion yuan (US$2.56 billion) of shares in 22 companies will be available for trading today on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges after lockup periods expired, according to Xinhua news agency. Newly tradeable shares in Southwest Securities Co (西南證券), China Shipbuilding Industry Co (中國船舶重工) and Jiangsu-based jean-fabric maker Black Peony Group Co (黑牡丹集團) account for more than 12 billion yuan of the total, based on Friday closing prices, Xinhua said, citing the stock exchanges. The value of shares freed from lockup periods more than tripled from the previous week, according to the report.
AVIATION
Airlines call for UN’s help
Global airlines yesterday called for a deal brokered by a UN agency to avoid an impasse between China and the EU over jet pollution spilling into a trade war. China’s decision to order its airlines not to join an EU carbon trading scheme and the EU’s refusal so far to back down on its plans, have wedged airlines between conflicting laws, Tony Tyler, the head of the International Air Transport Association, said in an interview. He also said airlines faced a tough year this year and warned of further airline bankruptcies in Europe or elsewhere if the region failed to resolve its sovereign debt crisis.
BANKING
Swiss bank skips court date
The US Department of Justice called Switzerland’s largest private bank a fugitive from justice after it did not send any representatives to a court hearing in New York, where it has been charged with conspiring with US clients to hide US$1.2 billion from the US Internal Revenue Service. Wegelin & Co is said to have helped at least 100 US clients conceal huge sums of money from the US tax agency in overseas accounts. Federal prosecutors said the bank recruited US customers who were concerned about possible prosecution for tax violations at home, including some that had already pulled money out of other Swiss banks.
BANKING
UK bankers arrested
An unspecified number of employees at unidentified UK banks are among a “number” of people arrested as part of an investigation into “tax-related criminal offenses,” the country’s customs and revenue service said. “As a result of an ongoing investigation into tax-related criminal offenses,” the service “has arrested a number of people, some of whom work for UK banks,” a spokesperson said by telephone. “This investigation relates to the actions of the people arrested in relation to their own financial affairs and is not connected to the business activities of the banks.”
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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