JAPAN
Wages drop for 12th month
Workers’ real wages continued to fall in March, in a weaker-than-expected result for pay that is under close scrutiny from the government. Monthly real cash earnings for workers dropped 2.9 percent from a year earlier, slipping for a 12th straight month, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare reported yesterday. Economists had forecast a 2.4 percent decline. Nominal cash earnings gained 0.8 percent from the previous year to reach ￥291,081 (US$2,155) for the month, below analysts’ expectations and far from the 3 percent increase flagged by policymakers as necessary for supporting inflation.
AUSTRALIA
Budget surplus forecast
The resource-rich nation is projecting its first budget surplus in 15 years, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said yesterday. “We are now forecasting a surplus this year, smaller deficits after that,” Chalmers told media, hours before unveiling what is expected to be an A$4 billion (US$2.7 billion) surfeit. Chalmers touted the “biggest budget turnaround on record” as evidence of “responsible economic management.” The projected surplus for this financial year would be delivered thanks in part to rising tax income — caused by record-low unemployment — but above all sky-high commodity prices.
MEXICO
Industrial corridor planned
The government on Monday set out fresh details of a plan to attract businesses to a corridor straddling a narrow isthmus of southern Mexico, part of a larger push to pump investment into the relatively poor region. The plan, called the Inter-Oceanic Corridor, is to include 10 new industrial parks along the stretch connecting the Pacific port of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca state with the Gulf coast hub of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state, officials said. The government would provide incentives for companies that set up business in the parks, including waiving taxes on rent and value-added taxes, in return for creating a minimum number of jobs, the Ministry of Economy said.
APPAREL
JD Sports bids for Courir
British sports fashion retailer JD Sports Fashion PLC yesterday announced a 520 million euro (US$570.9 million) bid for Courir France SAS, as it pursues its expansion in Europe and beyond. The company said in a statement that it entered “exclusive negotiations” on Monday with private equity firm Equistone Partners Europe, the majority owner of Courir, over the deal which comprises 325 million euros in cash and 195 million euros in assumed debt. The transaction is conditional on regulatory approval from the European Commission and is not expected to be completed before the second half of this year.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Mankind up 30% in IPO
Mankind Pharma Ltd rallied 30 percent on its first day of trading in Mumbai after raising 43.3 billion rupees (US$527.4 million) in one of India’s largest initial public offerings (IPOs) of the year. The drug and contraceptive maker’s stock yesterday jumped to as high as 1,414 rupees. Its shareholders had sold 40 million shares at 1,080 rupees apiece in the IPO, the top of a marketed range that started at 1,026 rupees. The solid debut comes after anchor investors such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the government of Singapore and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority together subscribed to nearly 13 billion rupees worth of shares in the offering.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
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