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.”
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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