SWITZERLAND
Inflation below 2% target
Inflation slowed to below the 2 percent ceiling targeted by the Swiss National Bank, offering limited reassurance to officials who have already signaled further tightening is likely. Consumer prices last month rose 1.7 percent from a year earlier, down from 2.2 percent the previous month, as energy costs fell from a year earlier. Underlying inflation, which strips out such volatile elements, also slowed to 1.8 percent, the Federal Statistical Office said. The so-called gauge had already fallen below the central bank’s ceiling last month, while the headline number now shows the weakest pace of price growth since January last year.
SINGAPORE
Vice PM to lead central bank
Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) is to become chairman of the central bank, as well as the investment strategies committee of the sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, separate statements said yesterday. Wong, who is also the city-state’s finance minister, is succeeding Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and GIC. His MAS appointment runs from Saturday to May 31, 2026, and his GIC role is effective Friday. Wong, broadly seen as the prime minister-in-waiting, has been deputy chairman of the MAS since June 2021. Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong (顏金勇) was named deputy chairman of the MAS.
CHINA
PBOC names CCP chief
Beijing has named Pan Gongsheng (潘功勝) as the central bank’s new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief, putting him in line to be the next governor. The decision was made at a People’s Bank of China (PBOC) meeting of top cadres on Saturday, the central bank said in a statement. Pan, 59, is a deputy governor at the central bank with extensive experience in commercial banking. Pan replaces Guo Shuqing (郭樹清), who retired as party chief. Central bank Governor Yi Gang (易綱), who was Guo’s deputy, also retired from his party role, the statement said.
ACCOUNTING
PwC kicks out top partners
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) yesterday said that a raft of Australian senior partners would be forced to leave the company, as it battles to contain the fallout from a damaging tax leak scandal. The company, part of the Big Four accounting firms, named eight partners who had “enabled poor behaviors to persist with no accountability” — including former PwC Australian CEO Tom Seymour. “They are now being held accountable for their misconduct,” interim CEO Kristin Stubbins said. A total of 12 PwC partners have left the company since the leak came to light.
PROJECT PLANNING
Facilitate Corp sues Twitter
Australian project management firm Facilitate Corp has filed a lawsuit against Twitter Inc in a US court seeking cumulative payments of about A$1 million (US$665,940) over alleged non-payment of bills for work done in four countries, court filings showed. The Sydney-based private company on Thursday filed the suit in the US District Court for the Northern District Of California alleging breach of contract over Twitter’s failure to pay its invoices. Facilitate said it was seeking compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial, legal costs and interest at the maximum legal rate.
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
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