■ FINANCE
IMF board approves loan
The IMF said on Thursday it had awarded a loan of US$15.7 billion to Hungary to help the country combat negative fallout from the global financial crisis. The IMF executive board approved the emergency loan, with about US$6.3 billion immediately available, the Washington-based multilateral institution said in a statement. The IMF and a group of European countries are also preparing a US$6 billion loan to Iceland, which has been hit hard by the financial crisis, Poland’s finance ministry said yesterday.
■ ECONOMY
ADB warns of recession
The world could easily slide into a global recession, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned yesterday, adding that growth in Asian economies would slow further next year amid weaker demand for exports. Recent dismal trade, employment and manufacturing data all point to a shrinking global economy and falling consumer demand for products made in Asia, ADB managing director general Rajat Nag said. “The global slowdown could easily turn into a global recession,” Nag said in a speech in Singapore. “Growth in developing Asia will likely slow further in 2009.”
■ BANKING
Manila cuts reserve ratio
The government unexpectedly reduced the size of deposit lenders need to set aside as reserves to shield the economy from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The central bank cut the reserve requirement to 19 percent from 21 percent effective next Friday, it said in a statement in Manila yesterday. Every 1 percentage-point reduction in the reserve ratio will free up about 30 billion pesos (US$615 million) in cash, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.
■ BANKING
DBS to lay off 900 staff
Singapore’s DBS Group, Southeast Asia’s biggest bank by assets, said yesterday it was cutting 900 staff to trim costs amid the global credit crisis and reported a slump in third-quarter net profit. Chief executive Richard Stanley said most of the cuts, to be carried out at the end of the month, would come from its offices in Singapore and Hong Kong and account for 6 percent of the work force.
■ INTERNET
Microsoft not interested
Microsoft Corp said it had no interest in acquiring Yahoo Inc, after Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang (楊致遠) said the Internet company was willing to sell. Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, has “moved on” and isn’t planning to make another bid, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said yesterday at a conference in Sydney. It may still have partnership deals with Yahoo, he said. “We’re not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition,” Ballmer said. “I’m sure there are still opportunities for some kind of partnership around search.”
■ FINANCE
PRC may turn ‘proactive’
China may adopt a more aggressive fiscal policy next year to maintain fast growth amid the global economic downturn, state media reported yesterday. Beijing may shift its policy to “proactive” next year from “prudent” this year in a move experts said would lead to an expansion in government spending, the China Business News said, citing an unnamed source. The decision is likely to be announced at the Central Economic Work Conference, a gathering of top leaders held at the end of the year.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
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