Sat, Jan 14, 2023 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  AUTOMAKERS

  Tesla slashes prices in US

  Tesla Inc drastically slashed the prices of its Model 3 sedan and Model Y sports utility vehicle in the US, a move that allows more models to qualify for a new US federal tax credit and juice demand in what is typically a sluggish winter quarter. The purchase price of a dual motor all-wheel drive Model 3 would be US$53,990, a 14 percent drop from US$62,990 previously, Tesla said on Thursday. The purchase price of a long-range Model Y would be US$52,990, a 20 percent reduction from US$65,990. The US’ Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by US President Joe Biden last year, created new criteria for consumers to qualify for as much as a US$7,500 tax credit on new electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. For vehicles, including sedans such as Tesla’s Model 3, the sticker price cannot exceed US$55,000 and the vehicle must be assembled in North America to qualify.

  ARGENTINA

  Inflation soars to 94.8%

  Inflation was 94.8 percent last year, its highest annual figure since 1991, the Indec national statistics institute said on Thursday. Latin America’s third-largest economy last year had one of the highest inflation rates in the world, even though last month’s figure of 5.1 percent month-on-month inflation continued a downward trend since a peak of 7.4 percent in July. The annual figure was a huge jump from the 50.9 percent inflation in 2021. The government has set an inflation target of 60 percent for this year. Prices for daily staples rose monthly, even weekly, last year. A liter of milk rose 320 percent last year, while cooking oil shot up 456 percent and 1kg of sugar soared 490 percent, the Abeceb consultancy said.

  GERMANY

  Ukraine war stirs downturn

  The economy suffered a sharp slowdown last year, when the return of war to Europe cut a COVID-19 pandemic rebound short and forced painful shifts in business and politics. Output increased 1.9 percent — down from 2.6 percent in 2021 and just ahead of the 1.8 percent estimate in a Bloomberg survey, the statistics office said yesterday. While last year began with high hopes that phasing-out two years of COVID-19 restrictions would juice demand — GDP was forecast to jump 4 percent — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine eight weeks in changed everything. Year-on-year inflation peaked at 11.6 percent last year and is expected to stay elevated through 2025. Economists started to forecast a downturn in September last year, after confidence indicators plummeted and surveys of purchasing managers signaled production had started to decline.

  AUTOMAKERS

  BYD plans Vietnam plant

  The electric vehicle (EV) unit of BYD Co (比亞迪) is planning to build a plant in Vietnam to produce vehicle parts, three people with knowledge of the plan said, in a move that would reduce the Chinese company’s reliance on domestic manufacturing and deepen its supply chain in Southeast Asia. The investment would exceed US$250 million, one of the people said. The Xian-based firm, which outsold Tesla Inc in EVs by more than two to one in China last year, has been expanding elsewhere in Asia, including Singapore and Japan, and Europe. The company in September last year announced it would build an EV assembly plant in Thailand with annual capacity of 150,000 units from next year.
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