Japan yesterday announced plans for a fresh stimulus package worth at least US$100 billion to boost the world’s second-biggest economy as Asian stocks rose further on global outlook hopes.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said yesterday that he had called on his finance minister to prepare a package worth 2 percent of GDP or more for public spending initiatives.
The deal, part of a supplementary budget bill for this year, would amount to at least ¥10 trillion (US$98.66 billion).
The IMF said in December that countries may have to introduce stimulus measures amounting to more than 2 percent of GDP to reduce the chances of recession. Aso announced the plan, thought to be aimed at helping laid-off workers and cash-strapped companies, last month, but did not say at the time how much it would be worth.
Japan has approved three stimulus plans since October with spending, tax cuts and other measures worth a combined ¥75 trillion, although actual fiscal spending totaled only about ¥12 trillion.
The moves have come as Asia’s biggest economy shrank at an annualized pace of 12.1 percent in the last quarter of last year — its worst in 35 years — as the downturn has dried up demand for its cars, high-tech goods and other popular exports.
Major manufacturers have cut back on production and slashed tens of thousands of jobs since the crisis began. Exports in February dropped nearly 50 percent year-on-year.
In the stock markets, Tokyo closed up 1.24 percent at a three month high, while Hong Kong was 3.4 percent higher after the morning session. Seoul shrugged off a weekend missile launch by North Korea to end 1.1 percent higher.
The gains followed another strong finish Friday on Wall Street, which closed 0.5 percent higher and above the key 8,000 point level for the first time since early February.
The NIKKEI was boosted by a weaker yen as investors move out of the safe haven currency.
In Hong Kong, traders took heart from comments chief executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), who said he could adopt further economic stimulus measures later this year to fight the financial downturn.
He said in an interview with the Financial Times that the city had HK$400 billion (US$51.6 billion) in the bank “so I’m in a good position to spend more if I want to … If necessary we will do something in the middle of the year.”
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
RSS