Taipei City’s competitiveness as a financial center ranks 41st in the world, the latest Global Financial Centers Index published on Thursday said. Taipei is included in the ratings for the first time.
The index, which was launched in March 2007 by the Z/Yen Group for the City of London, is updated every six months.
This month’s edition — the fifth in the series — provides ratings for 62 major financial centers around the world, with three new entrants: Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
The report says London, just ahead of New York, remains the world’s most competitive financial center. Rounding out the top 10 are Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich, Geneva, Chicago, Frankfurt, Boston and Dublin.
Among major financial centers in East Asia, Tokyo ranks 15th, down eight notches from the previous index. Shanghai has dropped one place to 35th, Beijing is down four notches to 51st and Seoul has fallen five places to 53rd.
Stuart Fraser, chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee of the City of London, said the latest results reflect the severe loss of confidence across all financial centers in the wake of a series of events, such as the collapse of global financial services firm Lehman Brothers and the effective nationalization by the US government of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
However, Fraser noted that the top-ranked centers have shown a much greater degree of resilience and a smaller drop in scores than those further down the rankings, adding that this may reflect a greater confidence in the ability of long-established centers to weather the global economic crisis.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
EARLY TALKS: Measures under consideration include convincing allies to match US curbs, further restricting exports of AI chips or GPUs, and blocking Chinese investments US President Donald Trump’s administration is sketching out tougher versions of US semiconductor curbs and pressuring key allies to escalate their restrictions on China’s chip industry, an early indication the new US president plans to expand efforts that began under former US president Joe Biden to limit Beijing’s technological prowess. Trump officials recently met with their Japanese and Dutch counterparts about restricting Tokyo Electron Ltd and ASML Holding NV engineers from maintaining semiconductor gear in China, people familiar with the matter said. The aim, which was also a priority for Biden, is to see key allies match China curbs the US
NOT TO WORRY: Some people are concerned funds might continue moving out of the country, but the central bank said financial account outflows are not unusual in Taiwan Taiwan’s outbound investments hit a new high last year due to investments made by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other major manufacturers to boost global expansion, the central bank said on Thursday. The net increase in outbound investments last year reached a record US$21.05 billion, while the net increase in outbound investments by Taiwanese residents reached a record US$31.98 billion, central bank data showed. Chen Fei-wen (陳斐紋), deputy director of the central bank’s Department of Economic Research, said the increase was largely due to TSMC’s efforts to expand production in the US and Japan. Investments by Vanguard International
Berkshire Hathaway Inc is looking to increase ownership in Japan’s five largest trading houses “over time,” company chairman and CEO Warren Buffett said in an annual letter to shareholders. The conglomerate had originally agreed to keep its holdings in the companies below 10 percent. However, the trading houses have agreed to relax the ceiling “moderately,” as Berkshire approaches the limit, a letter dated on Saturday said. The shares of the five — Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsui & Co, Itochu Corp, Sumitomo Corp and Marubeni Corp — have benefited over the longer-term from Buffett’s interest. However, they have struggled in recent months, along with
RSS