■RETAIL
German sales slip 1.8%
German retail sales slipped 1.8 percent in June from the previous month, disappointing expectations for a slight increase, provisional data released on Monday by the national statistics office showed. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had penciled in a modest rise of 0.5 percent for the biggest European economy. In May, sales fell 1.3 percent after gaining 1.4 percent in April, figures from the Destatis office showed. The office based its estimate for June on seven German states that represent around 76 percent of the country’s total retail sales. On a 12-month basis, sales shed 1.6 percent at constant prices, Destatis said in a statement.
■RETAIL
Metro bounces back
Germany’s biggest retailer, Metro, on Monday reported a second-quarter profit despite a drop in sales. Metro AG said it had reversed a 453 million euro (US$645.3 million) loss in the second quarter last year to post a net profit of 48 million euros in the three months to the end of June. Metro, which has operations in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern and Western Europe, said it was retaining its medium-term sales and earnings forecasts. This, despite the group reporting a 3.8 percent fall in revenue to 15.3 billion euros, with revenue hit by lower food prices and a weak performance by currencies in Eastern Europe.
■TELECOMS
CEO dies after triathlon
Calvin Lee, chief executive officer for Asia at Deutsche Telekom AG, died after he took part in a triathlon in Singapore yesterday, a company official said. Lee, 42, was pronounced dead at the Changi General Hospital at 2.35pm, the Straits Times reported. Paramedics and doctors failed to revive Lee after he was rescued from the sea during the swim segment of the Osim Singapore International Triathlon, the newspaper said. The cause of death is being investigated, the Singapore newspaper cited the organizers as saying.
■FINLAND
Trade surplus continues
The country posted its second consecutive trade surplus in May as falling orders prompted companies to cut output and import fewer raw materials. The surplus was 92 million euros, compared with a surplus of 683 million euros the month before and a surplus of 186 million euros a year earlier, Finnish Customs said on its Web site yesterday. The country’s industry, which has seen output plunge more than 20 percent in four out of five months this year, is purchasing fewer raw materials abroad, causing both imports and exports to drop. New industrial orders plummeted an annual 40 percent in May. Exports plunged 41 percent to 3.43 billion euros in May from a year earlier, the same as the decline in imports, which fell to 3.34 billion euros.
■ELECTRONICS
Panasonic books net loss
Japan’s Panasonic Corp yesterday announced a net loss of ¥52.98 billion (US$560 million) for the second quarter, blaming weak sales of electronic goods during the recession. Panasonic, which made a profit of ¥73.03 billion in the same period last year, left unchanged its forecast for a loss of ¥195 billion in the full business year to next March. The group, which changed its corporate name from Matsushita Electric Industrial in October, is cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants as it struggles to recover from its first annual loss in six years.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt
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