CHINA
Factory gate prices down
The country’s factory gate prices last month fell for the sixth consecutive month, but at a slightly slower-than-expected rate, official data showed yesterday, as economic activity normalized after the country’s COVID-19 outbreak. The producer price index fell 2.4 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement, compared with a 3 percent drop in June. The consumer price index rose 2.7 percent, compared with a 2.5 percent increase in June.
EGYPT
Urban inflation slows
Consumer prices in urban parts of the country grew at the slowest annual level since November last year as food costs fell, data provided by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics showed. The annual rate last month decelerated to 4.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with June’s 5.6 percent, defying some analyst expectations for a moderate acceleration. Food and beverage prices, which comprise the largest single component in the inflation basket, fell 1.5 percent. Monthly inflation sped up, rising to 0.4 percent from 0.1 percent the previous month.
FRANCE
Recovery loses steam
The pace of the country’s economic recovery is slowing, the central bank said, confirming expectations of a prolonged period before output catches up with pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. In its monthly report, the Bank of France said that economic activity was 7 percent below normal levels last month after a 9 percent gap in June. For this month, business leaders in services and most industrial sectors expect stability, the bank said. In construction, activity is expected to improve slightly to almost reach normal levels.
TURKEY
Lending rules scrapped
The government is rolling back rules that forced lenders to extend credit to businesses as it looks to slow loan growth in response to last week’s upheaval in financial markets that sent the lira to a record low against the US dollar. The banking regulator yesterday said in a statement that its asset ratio formula would be reduced by 5 percentage points to 95 percent for commercial lenders, and to 75 percent for Islamic lenders. The regulator also fine-tuned some rules for calculating the ratio and allowed banks to use average levels of the foreign-exchange rate for the previous month.
TOURISM
Accor to expand resort
Saudi Arabia has agreed with Europe’s biggest hotel group, Accor SA, for the group to expand and operate a resort at the US$20 billion Al-Ula tourism project in the kingdom’s northwestern region, the Royal Commission for the project said on Sunday. The agreement would see Accor operate an expanded Ashar Resort under the Banyan Tree brand, with 47 new units bringing the resort’s total capacity to 82 high-end villas, along with a spa and several gourmet restaurants, a commission statement said.
EQUIPMENT MAKERS
Roper eyes Vertafore
Roper Technologies Inc is in talks to acquire Vertafore Inc for close to US$5.5 billion, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter who were not identified. The acquisition would be the biggest ever for the Sarasota, Florida-based maker of industrial equipment, Reuters said, and has been competing with private equity firms for the deal.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last