SOUTH KOREA
Exports, inflation down
The country’s exports dropped 1.5 percent year-on-year to US$44.74 billion last month, largely as a result of the three-day Chuseok (Thanksgiving) holiday, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said yesterday. The trade surplus actually widened to US$3.71 billion, up from US$3.07 a year earlier, as imports fell 3.6 percent on-year to US$41.03 billion. Meanwhile, consumer prices grew at their slowest pace for 14 years last month, thanks to falls in farming costs, Statistics Korea said. The consumer price index rose 0.8 percent on-year, compared with a 1.3 percent gain in August.
BRAZIL
GDP forecast cut to 2.5%
The central bank on Monday trimmed its GDP growth forecast for this year for Latin America’s leading economy from 2.7 to 2.5 percent. In its monthly report, the bank said the GDP growth in the second quarter had come in at 1.5 percent — slightly above forecasters’ expectations — while adding it expected a strong showing in the fourth quarter. The Bank added it saw consumer demand would continue on an upward path — albeit at a more “moderate” rate amid strong investment and exports after falls in the real-dollar rate.
FRANCE
Jobseeker number revised
The Ministry of Labor on Monday cut in half the number of jobseekers it said had left the unemployment rolls in August, blaming a “malfunction” with a mobile phone company. The ministry announced last week that the number of registered jobseekers fell in August for the first time in more than two years, dropping by 50,000 to 3.23 million. However, in a fresh statement on Monday, the ministry said that after an investigation, it was revising the figure and the number of jobseekers had fallen by only between 22,000 and 29,000.
BANKING
Wells Fargo settles claim
Wells Fargo bank said it will pay US$869 million to Freddie Mac to settle claims of potential fraud in home loans it sold to the US government-controlled mortgage company. In a short statement issued on Monday night, the California-based bank said the agreement will allow it to substantially resolve liabilities on home loans it sold to Freddie Mac before 2009 and the emergence of the financial crisis.
COMPUTER GAMES
Ubisoft expands in Montreal
Video game maker Ubisoft announced on Monday the expansion of its Montreal operations with a US$373 million investment in online gaming and motion capture technologies, expected to create 500 new jobs. The earmarked monies will be spent and new staff will be hired over the coming seven years. The Paris-based company behind such video game hits as Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell said it expects to employ up to 3,500 people at its Montreal studio by 2020 — nearly half of its global production workforce in 29 countries.
PETROLEUM
Pacific Rubiales to buy firm
Canadian oil company Pacific Rubiales on Monday said it is acquiring the local firm Petrominerales for about C$1.6 billion (US$1.55 billion). The transaction is expected to be completed late next month. Pacific Rubiales is the largest private oil company operating in Colombia. Like Petrominerales, Pacific Rubiales operates in Peru and Brazil. The Canadian company is acquiring the Colombian firm’s estimated C$640 million in debt.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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