SPAIN
No need for rescue: Rajoy
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Saturday he did not believe that the country’s banks would need rescuing by Europe. “I don’t think so,” Rajoy said after arriving in Chicago to take part in a two-day NATO summit, expressing surprise after French President Francois Hollande said he was favorable to a European mechanism to support the recapitalization of Spanish banks. “I don’t really know if Mr Hollande said that, because if he said it must be because Mr Hollande has information that we don’t have,” he added. Hollande said on Friday that it would be “desirable” for there to be a recapitalization of the Spanish banks. Moody’s on Thursday cut the debt ratings of 16 the nation’s banks by one to three notches, citing the effects of the ongoing recession and the government’s own reduced creditworthiness. The leading bank, Santander, and the number two, BBVA, were both hit with three-notch downgrades from “Aa3” previously to “A3,” which for Moody’s is an upper-medium credit grade, with still low credit risk.
SOUTH KOREA
GDP growth forecast cut
The state-run think tank yesterday cut the nation’s growth forecast for this year to 3.6 percent, from 3.8 percent estimated in November last year, citing weakening demand amid a global slowdown. However, the Korea Development Institute, in its twice-yearly economic forecast report, said the global economy would likely pick up pace next year to help Asia’s fourth-largest economy to expand 4.1 percent. The export-driven economy has recently been hit by sluggish demand from debt-hit Europe and its biggest trading partner, China. Exports unexpectedly shrank year-on-year for two straight months in March and last month. The Bank of Korea last month also slashed the nation’s growth outlook for this year to 3.5 percent from 3.7 percent estimated in December last year. GDP grew 3.6 percent last year.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
No euro sell-off: Medvedev
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told leaders of the G8 on Saturday that Russia would maintain the proportion of its foreign reserves held in euros. “The Russian prime minister noted that we are not going to cut the share of euro in our reserves in order not to send wrong signals on the situation in Europe,” said Stanislav Voskresensky, Russian G20 “sherpa” and deputy economy minister. He was speaking after G8 leaders discussed the eurozone crisis at their meeting at Camp David on Saturday. The Russian central bank’s annual report issued on Wednesday showed the central bank has lowered the share of US and Canadian dollars in its foreign exchange reserve and increased its holdings in the euro.
SUDAN
Exchange rates merge
Black market currency traders put their business on hold yesterday to assess the impact of new government measures aimed at closing a wide gap between the official and unofficial exchange rates. From today, official foreign exchange bureaus will be allowed to buy and sell US dollars based on the unofficial market rate rather than the official value of 2.7 Sudanese pounds for US$1, Abdelmoneim Nour al-Din, deputy general secretary of the forex dealers’ association, said. He said his association would announce a daily price and start buying at 5.2 pounds per US$1, slightly above last week’s black market rate of 5.8 pounds to the dollar.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
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
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
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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