RUSSIA
Investors quit with US$36bn
Foreign investors who left the country after selling their businesses in the year prior to March withdrew about US$36 billion from the country, state news agency RIA Novosti reported yesterday, citing analysis of data from the central bank. Scores of the world’s biggest companies have left or scaled back their operations in the country in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Last week, the central bank played down the effect of foreign company exits, saying that about 200 sale deals had been completed in the year through March, with just 20 percent involving large asset sales, or those in excess of US$100 million.
VIETNAM
Exports shrink for 4th month
Exports contracted for a fourth month this year, adding to risks of a growth slowdown in an economy already battling a crisis in the local property sector. Exports declined 5.9 percent and imports shrank 18.4 percent from a year earlier, data released by General Statistics Office in Hanoi said. While the drop in exports was slower than a 10.3 percent fall seen in a Bloomberg survey, the imports performed worse than expected. Headline inflation this month quickened 2.43 percent from a year earlier, the lowest level in 14 months, other data showed. Meanwhile, core inflation came in at 4.54 percent.
AIRLINES
Asia carriers boost ties
Singapore Airlines Ltd and PT Garuda Indonesia are seeking to deepen ties with a commercial pact to coordinate on fares and flight schedules, the carriers announced yesterday. Singapore’s flag carrier and Indonesia’s main airline said the arrangement, which expands on a memorandum of understanding the two signed in November 2021, would likely cover routes between Singapore and Denpasar in Bali, Jakarta, and Surabaya, a port city in Java. The arrangement also envisages the implementation of new initiatives, including joint fare products and corporate programs, they added.
AIRLINES
Go raises pay to save itself
Go Airlines India Ltd plans to raise salaries of captains by 100,000 rupees (US$1,210) a month and by 50,000 rupees for first officers as it tries to salvage its operations after filing for insolvency on May 2. The additional pay, which the airline calls a retention allowance, would come into effect on Thursday, according to an e-mail to pilots seen by Bloomberg News. It would also be offered to those who have left the company but are willing to withdraw their resignations by June 15. The airline said it would also soon reintroduce a “longevity bonus” for long-serving staff.
CEMENT
Firm fined over cave art risk
Norway’s wealth fund has placed an Indonesian state-controlled cement maker, in which it has a stake, under observation for three years for what it calls “risk of damage” from the firm’s activities to prehistoric cave paintings on Sulawesi island. A Semen Indonesia subsidiary operates a mine near 18 caves in South Sulawesi that house some of the world’s oldest paintings, said Norges Bank, which manages the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management. “The background for the decision is unacceptable risk of damage on prehistoric and irreplaceable culture heritage,” Norges Bank said on Thursday.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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