SOUTH KOREA
Seoul eyes tax expansion
The government yesterday proposed expanding its capital gains taxes to include a larger number of affluent stock investors, in its push to reduce inequality by levying more from the wealthy and less from general share trading. Starting in 2023, the government would impose taxes on annual capital gains exceeding 20 million won (US$16,624) for retail investors, Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki said in a policy meeting. That would affect about 300,000 people or the top 5 percent of all stock investors in the nation, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said.
GERMANY
Consumer mood improves
The mood among consumers is brightening further as the country emerges from a months-long COVID-19 lockdown, pollsters GfK said yesterday. “Rapid reopening of the economy and society in Germany is helping consumers get over the corona shock more and more,” GfK said, as its monthly forward-looking barometer predicted minus-9.6 points for next month, up nine points on this month. The measure had fallen as low as minus-23.1 points, an all-time low, last month.
AVIATION
EU approves bailout
The European Commission yesterday approved the German government’s massive bailout of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, saving the airline from bankruptcy, but with conditions. The commission said that Berlin’s injection of 6 billion euros (US$6.74 billion) to keep the company afloat was allowed, but Lufthansa would have to give up prized slots at the Frankfurt and Munich airports to ensure fair competition. Its shareholders were to vote on the plan later yesterday.
MULTINATIONALS
Softbank plans buyback
Softbank Group Corp said it would buy back as much as ￥500 billion (US$4.7 billion) of its own stock, continuing a repurchase effort that has boosted its share price after heavy losses earlier this year. The Tokyo-based company said it would buy back up to 5.75 percent of its shares. It said this month that it had finished an earlier repurchase program, also for ￥500 billion. Meanwhile, founder Masayoshi Son yesterday announced that he is stepping down from the board of e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
CANADA
Fitch downgrades nation
The country on Wednesday lost its “AAA” debt rating, after Fitch downgraded it a notch to “AA+,” warning that its fiscal position is deteriorating amid efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Fitch said the country is poised to “emerge from recession with much higher public debt ratios.” Although the rising debt and deficit levels “will support recovery, the economy’s investment and growth prospects face challenges,” Fitch said. It sees gross government debt surging to 115 percent of GDP this year from 88.3 percent.
COSMETICS
Unilever to rename brand
Unilever plans to rename Fair & Lovely, a melanin suppressing face cream that is one of its best-sellers in India, as the backlash against branding that trades off racial stereotypes grows. The Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, which derives more than US$500 million in annual revenue from the brand in India alone, would also remove “fair,” “whitening” and “lightening” from its packaging and marketing material and feature women of all skin tones in advertising campaigns. The brand is sold in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan and elsewhere in Asia.
‘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
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
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
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