SWITZERLAND
Inflation below 2% target
Inflation slowed to below the 2 percent ceiling targeted by the Swiss National Bank, offering limited reassurance to officials who have already signaled further tightening is likely. Consumer prices last month rose 1.7 percent from a year earlier, down from 2.2 percent the previous month, as energy costs fell from a year earlier. Underlying inflation, which strips out such volatile elements, also slowed to 1.8 percent, the Federal Statistical Office said. The so-called gauge had already fallen below the central bank’s ceiling last month, while the headline number now shows the weakest pace of price growth since January last year.
SINGAPORE
Vice PM to lead central bank
Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) is to become chairman of the central bank, as well as the investment strategies committee of the sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, separate statements said yesterday. Wong, who is also the city-state’s finance minister, is succeeding Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and GIC. His MAS appointment runs from Saturday to May 31, 2026, and his GIC role is effective Friday. Wong, broadly seen as the prime minister-in-waiting, has been deputy chairman of the MAS since June 2021. Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong (顏金勇) was named deputy chairman of the MAS.
CHINA
PBOC names CCP chief
Beijing has named Pan Gongsheng (潘功勝) as the central bank’s new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief, putting him in line to be the next governor. The decision was made at a People’s Bank of China (PBOC) meeting of top cadres on Saturday, the central bank said in a statement. Pan, 59, is a deputy governor at the central bank with extensive experience in commercial banking. Pan replaces Guo Shuqing (郭樹清), who retired as party chief. Central bank Governor Yi Gang (易綱), who was Guo’s deputy, also retired from his party role, the statement said.
ACCOUNTING
PwC kicks out top partners
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) yesterday said that a raft of Australian senior partners would be forced to leave the company, as it battles to contain the fallout from a damaging tax leak scandal. The company, part of the Big Four accounting firms, named eight partners who had “enabled poor behaviors to persist with no accountability” — including former PwC Australian CEO Tom Seymour. “They are now being held accountable for their misconduct,” interim CEO Kristin Stubbins said. A total of 12 PwC partners have left the company since the leak came to light.
PROJECT PLANNING
Facilitate Corp sues Twitter
Australian project management firm Facilitate Corp has filed a lawsuit against Twitter Inc in a US court seeking cumulative payments of about A$1 million (US$665,940) over alleged non-payment of bills for work done in four countries, court filings showed. The Sydney-based private company on Thursday filed the suit in the US District Court for the Northern District Of California alleging breach of contract over Twitter’s failure to pay its invoices. Facilitate said it was seeking compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial, legal costs and interest at the maximum legal rate.
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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