SOUTH KOREA
Export gains cooling
Early trade data showed signs of cooling export gains this month as the global economy adjusts to fallout from the war in Ukraine and China’s COVID-19 lockdowns weigh on supply chains. While exports advanced 24.1 percent in the first 20 days of the month from a year earlier, helped by a rebound in auto shipments, figures for average daily shipments showed just a 7.6 percent increase, for the smallest gain in preliminary data since the end of 2020. Exports to China continued to show weakness. Overall imports rose 37.8 percent, resulting in a trade deficit of US$4.8 billion, as energy costs stay high.
SOLAR POWER
China triples investment
China tripled investment in solar power projects in the first four months, putting the nation on track to install record amounts of new clean energy capacity. Investment in solar was 29 billion yuan (US$4.35 billion) from January through last month, about 204 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier, a National Energy Administration statement said. That compares with 51.3 billion yuan invested in solar in the first 11 months of last year. The nation is forecast to add a record 220 gigawatts of total power capacity this year, the agency said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Inflation concerning: Clarke
The inflation picture is hugely concerning, but the British government has confidence in the Bank of England to get it right, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke said yesterday. Inflation surged last month to its highest annual rate of 9 percent since 1982. “The inflation picture is what is hugely concerning and is making waves across both America and Europe as well. And that’s because this is a truly global problem,” Clarke told LBC Radio. “We absolutely have confidence in the independent Bank of England to get this right and it’s vitally important that we don’t compromise their independence.”
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
CoinSwitch urges regulation
India must establish rules on cryptocurrencies to resolve regulatory uncertainty, protect investors and boost its crypto sector, CoinSwitch CEO Ashish Singhal said on Sunday. Although the Reserve Bank of India has backed a ban on cryptocurrencies over risks to financial stability, a federal government move to tax income from them has been interpreted by the industry as a sign of acceptance by New Delhi. “Users don’t know what will happen with their holdings — is government going to ban, not ban, how is it going to be regulated?” Singhal told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Regulations will bring peace ... more certainty,” he added.
FOOD
Some Jif products recalled
J. M. Smucker Co is recalling some Jif peanut butter products sold in the US and Canada because of potential salmonella contamination. The Orrville, Ohio-based company on Saturday expanded its recall of the popular brand of peanut butter products to Canada, a day after announcing a voluntary recall in the US. Consumers who have various crunchy, creamy and squeeze products should dispose of them immediately, the company said. Salmonella is a bacterial disease that causes fever, diarrhea and vomiting, and J.M. Smucker is working with the Food and Drug Administration on the recall. The financial impact is not yet known.
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV yesterday said that it has reached an agreement to acquire a subsidiary brewery of Taiwan’s Sanyo Whisbih Group (三洋維士比集團). Heineken is to assume majority ownership and management rights of the Long Chuan Zuan Co (龍泉鑽興業) brewery in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the Dutch company said. It would become the first multinational brewing company to operate brewery in Taiwan once the acquisition is completed. The deal has been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission, but details of the financial transaction cannot be disclosed at this time, as terms of the settlement have not been completed,
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
LOOK WHO OWES: China’s exposure to Taiwanese banks was the second-largest, with Luxembourg third, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, the central bank said The US remained the largest debtor country to Taiwan’s banking sector for a 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with its exposure rising 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier on the back of an increase in US bonds, the central bank said on Friday. Data compiled by the central bank showed that outstanding international claims by Taiwanese banks on a direct risk basis to the US stood at US$125.38 billion as of the end of March. Department of Financial Inspection deputy head Pan Ya-hui (潘雅慧) said that the US Federal Reserve’s launch of a rate hike cycle in
GREEN CITY: The company is set to invest US$8 billion to make electric vehicles and batteries for a new city that would rely entirely on renewable energy sources Indonesia said that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is considering investing in the country’s new capital city, a move that would bolster the US$34 billion construction project. Hon Hai, which is known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is looking at setting up an electric bus system and an Internet of Things network at Nusantara, as Indonesia’s new capital is to be called, Indonesian Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement yesterday. Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday to discuss the company’s plan to invest US$8 billion to build a manufacturing plant
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