World

Automobile and electronics manufacturers worldwide have recently had to reduce output because a severe drought in Taiwan has hit the island’s production of semiconductors. This and other global supply-chain disruptions — many of them caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — have prompted advanced economies to take steps to mitigate the potential impact. But what types of government action make economic sense? Supply-chain bottlenecks can have a significant economic effect. Germany, for example, imports 8% of its intermediate products from low-wage countries (the United States relies on these economies for just 4.6% of its inputs). Problems with input deliveries recently led Germany’s Ifo Institute to lower its forecast for German GDP growth this year by almost half a percentage point, to 3.3%. ...

SINGAPORE: Over more than three years, the director of a firm providing security guards to the Takashimaya store at Ngee Ann City gave S$121,000 in bribes to a senior manager to cover up a shortage in security guards. The store suffered estimated losses of about S$479,700 in liquidated damages that it was supposed to receive if there was a shortfall in the number of security officers deployed. The director of White Knights Security Services, 30-year-old permanent resident Mandhir Singh Karpal Singh, was sentenced to 10 months' jail on Monday (Aug 16). He pleaded guilty to five counts of corruptly giving bribes to Takashimaya's senior divisional manager Chan Kuen Thong, with another 15 charges taken into consideration. The court heard that Chan was in charge of Takashimaya's security de...

For the first time in a decade, China has released some of its strategic metal stocks to try to dampen a price rally hurting manufacturers. It has also released coal and imported corn reserves to cool prices, while buying pork to prop up that market. China is the world's largest user of commodities and has built up vast reserves. The following are details of key commodities and estimates and assessments of strategic reserve levels METALS Based on past stockpiling activity, analysts estimate China's strategic reserves hold 1.5 million to 2 million tonnes of copper, 800,000-900,000 tonnes of aluminium and 250,000-400,000 tonnes of zinc. The reserves administration also stockpiles key battery metal cobalt, of which industry sources estimate China is holding about 7,000 tonnes. It also kee...

BEIJING : China's businesses and the broader economy came under increasing pressure in August as factory activity expanded at a slower pace while the services sector slumped into contraction, raising the likelihood of more near-term policy support to boost growth. The world's second-biggest economy staged an impressive recovery from a coronavirus-battered slump, but momentum has weakened recently due to domestic COVID-19 outbreaks, high raw material prices, slowing exports, tighter measures to tame hot property prices and a campaign to reduce carbon emissions. The official manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) fell to 50.1 in August from 50.4 in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday, holding just above the 50-point mark that separates growth f...

While authorities in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State are starting to vaccinate priority groups against COVID-19, they currently have no plan to include minority Rohingya Muslims that are living in densely packed camps, the junta-appointed local administrator has said. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh during military operations in 2017, and those who remain complain of discrimination and mistreatment in a country that does not recognize them as citizens. Local administrator Kyaw Lwin said the vaccine rollout had begun in the Sittwe township with 10,000 vaccinations for priority groups such as older people, health care workers, government staff and Buddhist monks. There were no current plans for vaccinating any of the Muslims living in camps in Sittwe, he said. “We ar...

Containers are transferred from a truck to cargo ship at the international cargo terminal of a port in Hai Phong city on August 12, 2019. Furniture rental company Cort is jumping through hoops to manage supply-chain delays and a sharp rise in shipping costs it began facing last year as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the world. To avoid the difficulty in finding available shipping containers to lease, it bought 100 so it could get its couches, beds and bar stools to the United States. The company imports from seven countries, but it is adding even more, including Mexico, and sourcing more products domestically. To bypass the traffic buildup at the Port of Los Angeles, Cort has turned to other ports to bring in its desks, office chairs and book cases. "In my time in business, I've neve...

JERUSALEM: Passengers on an El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv will be tested for the coronavirus on the plane itself or before boarding on Thursday (Aug 5) to speed up procedures upon arrival in Israel, where infections are on the rise. The Israeli airline announced the plan a day after Israel said travellers from the United States, like those from many other countries, would have to self-isolate for at least a week after landing at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport. Israel hopes the new restriction will slow the spread of COVID-19 and discourage Israelis - foreign tourism to Israel is still largely banned - from flying abroad and risking higher exposure to the Delta variant that is fueling a surge of infections worldwide. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for the El Al passeng...

China ordered broadcasters on Thursday to shun artists with "incorrect political positions" and "effeminate" styles, and said a patriotic atmosphere needed to be cultivated, widening a crackdown on its booming entertainment industry. After years of runaway growth in the world's second largest economy, regulators have been to trying to strengthen control over Chinese society by tightening oversight over a broad swathe of industries ranging from technology to education and culture. Communist Party authorities can censor anything they believe violates core socialist values and already have stringent rules on content ranging from video games to movies and music. The latest moves reining in the entertainment industry come in the wake of a series of celebrity scandals involving tax evasion an...

China's tech stocks slumped to new lows on Friday (Aug 20) and Hong Kong's benchmark index hit an almost 10-month trough, as an unrelenting series of Chinese regulatory crackdowns crushed investors' confidence. More than US$560 billion in market value has been wiped off Hong Kong and China exchanges in a week as funds capitulate out of once-favoured stocks, unsure which sectors regulators will target next. The Hang Seng fell 1.8 per cent and its weekly drop of 5.8 per cent was the largest since the height of the pandemic panic in financial markets in March 2020. Stocks in Shanghai also fell, while investors sold risky corporate debt and the Chinese currency. The yuan was poised for its biggest weekly loss in two months as investors rushed to safety amid global coronavirus concerns. "Th...

NEW YORK : The dollar slipped from 4-1/2-month highs to trade little changed on Wednesday after minutes of last month's Federal Reserve meeting suggested there was no consensus about the timing of a tapering of its asset purchases under the U.S. central bank's quantitative easing program. A reduction in debt purchases is typically positive for the dollar as it means the Fed will not be flooding the financial system with cash, increasing the greenback's value. The minutes also said most participants "judged that the Committee's standard of 'substantial further progress' toward the maximum-employment goal had not yet been met." This means that Fed policy would remain accommodative for some time, providing no support for the dollar. "The market ... read the minutes as more dovish, leading...