GERMANY
Business confidence rises
Business confidence rose for the first time in nine months as companies’ concerns about rising trade tensions seem to have bottomed out. The Ifo institute’s closely watched gauge this month increased to 103.8 from 101.7 last month. The pickup, the first since the index started declining from a record-high late last year, was better than economists had forecast. The nation’s economy continued its robust expansion in the second quarter of this year, driven by a surge in domestic demand that mitigated a drag from net trade. The data confirmed the Bundesbank’s assessment that the economy remains on a “sound growth path” after a slowdown in the first quarter, though weakening growth in China, emerging market turmoil and protectionism pose risks to the outlook.
FINTECH
Berkshire to buy One97 stake
Berkshire Hathaway Inc has agreed to buy a stake in the company behind Paytm, India’s biggest digital payments brand, in Warren Buffett’s first foray into the country’s start-ups, people familiar with the matter said. Buffett is set to acquire 3 to 4 percent of One97 Communications Ltd, valuing the target at more than US$10 billion, the people said, adding that a formal announcement could come in the next few days. One97, founded by billionaire Vijay Shekhar Sharma, runs the Paytm brand and is the leading player in India’s booming digital payments market. Buffett would join a star-studded group who have invested in Sharma’s companies, including Masayoshi Son’s Softbank Group Corp and Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and Ant Financial (螞蟻金服).
REAL ESTATE
Londoners opting out of city
Londoners are buying more homes outside the capital as prices remain too high for houses within the city even after the end of a decade-long housing boom. In the first half of this year, Londoners bought more than 30,000 homes outside the city, a 16 percent rise from a year earlier and 61 percent more than in the same period a decade earlier, according to research by Hamptons International. Nearly 40 percent of leavers relocated to the southeast of England, followed by 30 percent who moved to the east of the country. With affordability stretched, more Londoners are moving out of the capital to find their new home, Hamptons research analyst Aneisha Beveridge said, adding that more people are making a bigger move and buying a larger home sooner to avoid having to pay stamp duty on additional moves as they trade up. Despite a recent cooling in the market, home prices in the capital have still almost doubled in the past decade after demand outstripped supply and low interest rates fueled purchases.
NIGERIA
GDP slows on oil production
The nation’s economic growth slowed in the second quarter as oil production fell. GDP in Africa’s largest oil producer expanded 1.5 percent in the three months through June from a year earlier, Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in a report released on Twitter yesterday. That compares with 1.95 percent in the first quarter. Oil output fell to 1.84 million barrels a day in the period. That is the lowest since the first quarter of last year, when the economy was contracting. While it accounts for 9 percent of GDP, crude is the West African nation’s biggest source of foreign income.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month increased 41.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.3 billion (US$975.8 million), rising on an annual basis for the third consecutive month and marking the highest for the month of October as Taiwanese stocks continued to perform strongly, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday. Last month, the TAIEX surged 2,412.81 points, or 9.34 percent, marking its largest-ever monthly rise for October as market sentiment was buoyed by a nearly 15 percent gain in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than 40 percent of the
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
RSS