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.
‘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
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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