■ Trade
Poultry imports banned
The nation has temporarily banned imports of poultry from South Africa to prevent bird flu and other epidemics, the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture said. The council made the announcement in a statement issued over the weekend, citing the fact that a large number of ostriches in various areas of South Africa's eastern Cape Province, such as Bedford, Cradock and Somerset, have died from bird flu. The country's poultry raisers should heighten their alert against a spread of bird flu-related epidemics, as other countries in Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and mainland China have also been affected by avian flu, officials with the council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection said.
■ Energy
Thai firms to gear down
Siam Cement Pcl, Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl and other large Thai companies agreed with a government request to reduce their consumption of electricity, fuel and other energy by as much as 20 percent to trim surging imports. Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak today called a special meeting with executives from Siam Cement, the country's biggest cement maker, Charoen Pokphand and other companies after crude oil prices rose to a record on last Friday. The Thai government has spent 22 billion baht (US$531 million) to subsidize retail gasoline prices since January to prevent rising fuel costs from hurting economic growth and stoking inflation. Thailand, Southeast Asia's second-largest crude oil buyer, had a current account deficit of 19 million baht in April, its first monthly shortfall in two years, on rising oil imports.
■ Fiscal Policy
Bank to act on inflation
India's central bank governor said the monetary authority will seek to ensure price stability amid the fastest inflation in 3 and half years. He didn't give details. India's inflation, as measured by the rise in wholesale prices from a year earlier, unexpectedly accelerated to 7.51 percent in the week ended last month 24 from 6.52 percent in the prior week, the government said in a report last Friday. Inflation was higher than the bank had expected in its May monetary policy, Reserve Bank of India Governor Y.V. Reddy told reporters in the western city of Pune. He said basically, it appears that global factors played a critical part in this increase though the domestic factors such as liquidity overhang and monsoon conditions also played a role.
■ Investing
Buffet's bet cuts profits
Billionaire Warren Buffett's bet against the US dollar and his preference for cash over other investments caused Berkshire Hathaway Inc to post its smallest quarterly earnings since 2002. Net income at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, run by Buffett since 1965, fell 42 percent in the second quarter to US$1.28 billion, or US$834 a share, from US$2.23 billion, or US$1,452, a year earlier, the company said yesterday. The drop was caused by US$172 million of realized investment and currency losses, compared with a US$905 million gain a year earlier, when Berkshire sold most of its US Treasuries. Buffett, 73, is accumulating cash to make acquisitions, a strategy that also cut interest and dividend income 16 percent in the quarter. "You've got an avalanche of cash," Donald Yacktman, who manages US$1 billion at Yacktman Asset Management, said in an interview last week.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
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