CHINA
PBOC injects less cash
The government injected the least amount of medium-term cash into the banking system since November last year, a sign that policymakers are watching the effects of past easing steps as the nation’s economic recovery appears to be on track. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) offered 170 billion yuan (US$24.74 billion) of funds to banks through the medium-term lending facility. That resulted in a 20 billion yuan net injection this month, the smallest since November. It also left the interest rate unchanged at 2.75 percent, the eighth month for it to stand pat, as expected by a majority of economists and analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
UNITED KINGDOM
BOE reviews deposit scheme
The Bank of England (BOE) is considering an overhaul of its deposit guarantee scheme after the recent global banking crisis, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the central bank’s plans. Reforms under consideration include raising the amount covered for businesses from the current ￡85,000 (US$105,250) limit, as well as forcing banks to pre-fund the system to a greater extent to speed up payouts, the newspaper reported. The report did not have details on what the new limit could be. The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp guarantees deposits up to US$250,000.
INDIA
Adviser pushes back on ESG
The country needs to resist efforts by some western ratings companies to push environmental, social and governance (ESG) norms on emerging markets even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is committed to zero emissions by 2070, a key economic adviser said. “The issue is not so much about the need for some norms, but about who will be monitoring these targets,” Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of Modi’s economic advisory council said in an interview. “The existing credit rating ones already have serious biases and failures. Allowing the emergence of a new bunch of exclusively western agencies to monitor ESG targets is problematic.”
SINGAPORE
Home sales rise
Home sales rose to a six-month high last month as appetite for homes remained strong. Purchases of new private apartments increased to 492 units last month, according to figures released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. That is the third month of gains following the plunge to a 14-year-low in December last year when a lack of project launches held back buyers. “The general market view is still quite positive,” OrangeTee & Tie Pte (橙易產業) senior vice president of research and analytics Christine Sun (孫燕清) said. The lack of supply compared to demand will continue to support the market, Sun added.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault reviews EV pricing
French automaker Renault SA is reviewing its pricing policies of electric vehicles (EV0 worldwide to ensure it stays competitive after a wave of price cuts by US rival Tesla Inc, a top executive said yesterday. After slashing prices several times in the US, Tesla on Friday cut prices in Europe — including on Renault’s home turf of France — as well as Israel and Singapore, expanding a global discount drive it began in China in January. “We will analyze country by country, market by market, which level of competitiveness we need to have to stay in the game,” Renault chief executive Fabrice Cambolive said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment. The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam today, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said. The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power
As South Korea descends into political chaos, its equity market risks falling further behind major tech rival Taiwan, which is basking in the glory of a global artificial intelligence (AI) boom. A near-30 percent surge in Taiwan’s stock benchmark this year, set to be the best since 2009, has already helped spur a historic divergence between Asia’s two tech-dominated markets. The nation’s market capitalization now exceeds South Korea’s by about US$950 billion as the world’s AI frontrunners from Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp to OpenAI all increasingly turn to Taiwanese firms for supply. Looking ahead to next year, while both export-oriented economies
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