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.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) server makers are expected to make major investments in Texas in May after US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and amid his rising tariff threats, Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA, 台灣電子電機公會) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) said yesterday. The association led a delegation of seven AI server manufacturers to Washington, as well as the US states of California, Texas and New Mexico, to discuss land and tax issues, as Taiwanese firms speed up their production plans in the US with many of them seeing Texas as their top option for investment, Lee said. The
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