ARGENTINA
IMF approves more funds
The IMF Executive Board approved a US$56.3 billion credit line, clearing the way for the embattled economy to receive more funding at a faster pace than originally negotiated. The board’s sign-off on Friday ratified a revised agreement announced last month. Under the new deal, Argentina is to receive about US$35.8 billion throughout the remainder of this year and all of next year, representing a nearly US$19 billion increase from the original arrangement negotiated in June. It received US$15 billion that month.
UNITED KINGDOM
Business tax cut likely
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is tomorrow likely to give a ￡900 million (US$1.15 billion) tax cut to small high-street retailers in his annual budget to help them compete against online competition, the UK government said late on Friday. The UK Treasury said that starting from next year, almost half-a -million small retailers would enjoy a cut of one-third to their property taxes, known as business rates.
UNITED STATES
GDP grows 3.5% in Q3
The economy grew at a robust annual rate of 3.5 percent in the July-to-September quarter as the strongest burst of consumer spending in nearly four years helped offset a sharp drag from trade. The Department of Commerce on Friday said that the third-quarter GDP growth followed an even stronger 4.2 percent rate of growth in the second quarter. The two quarters marked the strongest consecutive quarters of growth since 2014.
STEELMAKERS
Arcelor, Nippon buy Essar
Global steel giant ArcelorMittal SA and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp on Friday said they have won a bidding war for India’s Essar Steel with a US$5.7 billion offer for their debt-laden rival. The deal is one of the biggest takeovers of a failing Indian company under India’s first bankruptcy law, passed two years ago to help clean up crippling corporate debts. While ArcelorMittal is to own a majority stake in Essar, Nippon would hold a nearly equal share, the companies said in separate statements.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Takeda talks EU settlement
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co is in talks with EU antitrust regulators about selling an experimental inflammatory bowel disease drug to help close its US$62 billion takeover of Shire PLC. In a statement released on Friday, Takeda said that it has been in discussions with the European Commission about divesting SHP647, which is in the final stages of experimental testing for the treatment of two gastrointestinal disorders: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Takeda already markets the drug Entyvio for those conditions.
FINANCIAL CRIME
Ex-forex traders acquitted
Three former London currency traders were on Friday found not guilty of US charges that they schemed to rig benchmark exchange rates, the latest verdict in a US probe into the multitrillion-US dollar foreign exchange market. Chris Ashton, Rohan Ramchandani and Richard Usher, who worked at Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co respectively, were acquitted of all charges by a jury in a Manhattan federal court.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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