MACROECONOMICS
UK mulls rate rise
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has indicated that Britain’s record-low interest rates could start to rise at the turn of the year. Carney on Thursday said that he expected the key rate to climb over the next three years from its current level of 0.5 percent — where it has stood for more than six years to stimulate growth after the worldwide economic downturn of 2008. Carney said that rates would rise slowly before reaching a level that is about half as high as its historical average of 5 percent.
INVESTMENTS
China FDI climbs 8%
China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows rose 8 percent in the first half from the same period last year, a Chinese Ministry of Commerce official said yesterday. Investment into China’s fast-growing services sector jumped 23 percent in the first half from the same period last year, accounting for more than 60 percent of the period’s total FDI, Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen (王受文) said at a news conference. The ministry did not announce the exact investment value or the monthly figures for last month. Outbound direct investment soared 29.2 percent to US$56 billion in the first six months from last year, data showed.
MINING
S African wage talks stuck
South African gold-mine workers and bosses are stuck “far apart” in their wage talks as a new offer by companies failed to impress unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said. Companies including AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, Sibanye Gold Ltd and Harmony Gold Mining Co offered more compensation for lost jobs, as well as raising medical payments and some workers’ retirement ages, the Chamber of Mines said in a statement on Thursday. The offer is “meaningless” as it does not talk about wages, NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said. NUM is asking for an 80 percent increase in base pay for entry-level underground workers who now earn about 5,800 rand (US$470) per month. The companies have offered a gain of as much as 13 percent.
TELECOMS
Ericsson’s profits fall
Swedish wireless equipment maker Ericsson AB yesterday said broadband demand in North America has stabilized but remains low, with second-quarter net profit falling 20 percent to 2.1 billion kronor (US$245.3 million). Overall, net sales in the second quarter grew 11 percent to 60.7 billion kronor, driven by strong development in the network segment, Ericsson said. Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg said that the mobile broadband business in North America stabilized in the April-to-June period, but at a lower level than a year ago. The decline was partly offset by an increased pace of 4G deployments in China, he added.
BANKING
Citi profit beats estimates
Citigroup Inc, the third biggest bank in the US, posted earnings that beat analysts’ estimates, as CEO Michael Corbat cut expenses. Second-quarter net profit jumped to US$4.85 billion, or US$1.51 per share, from US$181 million, or US$0.03 per share, in the same period last year, the New York-based lender said on Thursday. Excluding accounting adjustments and one-time items, profit was US$1.45 per share, beating the US$1.34 average estimate of 27 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Total revenue, excluding accounting adjustments, fell 1.5 percent to US$19.2 billion from a year earlier, in line with analysts’ estimates.
‘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
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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