■ FOREX
US dollar hits record low
The dollar fell to another record low against the euro yesterday on growing speculation that the US Federal Reserve will cut US borrowing costs. The euro leapt to US$1.4467 in early European trading, which beat the previous record US$1.4441 that was set in New York on Tuesday. The greenback has also slid against other currencies, including the British pound and the Australian and Canadian dollars, ahead of the anxiously awaited Fed rate call yesterday. The pound surged as high as US$2.0743 -- the highest level since the second quarter of 1981.
■ ECONOMY
BOJ cuts growth forecast
Japan's central bank yesterday cut its growth forecast to 1.8 percent for the current fiscal year but predicted a pick-up next year along with a return to inflation. The Japanese economy remains on track to expand by 2.1 percent in the next fiscal year, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) said, while trimming its previous projection for 2.1 percent growth this year. The bank said the downgrade for this year was partly the result of a drop in construction activity due to increased earthquake resistance standards. Consumer prices are expected to remain flat this year but rise by 0.4 percent next year, the report said.
■ TRADE
Dumping probes decrease
The number of anti-dumping probes launched by trading nations against alleged unfairly priced imports fell sharply in the first six months of the year, the WTO said on Tuesday. Between January and June, 13 WTO members reported a total of 49 new investigations against importers, compared with 92 initiations in the first six months of last year, new data released by the WTO showed. Chinese companies remained the most frequent target of suspicions that they sold exported goods at a lower price than on their home market, with 16 fresh probes directed at exports from China. Taiwan, EU nations and South Korea were the second most frequent subjects, with four new investigations.
■ TELECOMS
Alcatel-Lucent cutting jobs
Alcatel-Lucent, the French-US telecommunications equipment maker, said yesterday that it would cut 4,000 more jobs by 2009. The announcement came as the company reported its financial results for the third quarter. No details on the further reduction in staff were given. The company had previously announced job cuts in February, shortly after the merger of the French firm Alcatel and the US company Lucent.
■ cHINA
Investors stage sit-in
Unhappy investors raided the office of a Chinese health goods company in Jinan City and staged a sit-in to protest the firm's collapse, reports said yesterday. The protests were triggered last Friday by the apparent bankruptcy of Shandong Jizheng Health Care Products Co and the disappearance of the firm's management, the South China Morning Post and other newspapers in Hong Kong reported. The protesters demanded that the city government compensate them for losses of billions of yuan in investments in the company, the Post and Ming Pao reported. The Web site of the China Anti-Pyramid Selling Association said the firm allegedly lured investors, often farmers, with promises of high rates of returns from its sales of health supplements, teas, wines and other products.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
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