World Bank head warns of stagflation‘SHARP SLOWDOWN’: The global median income has dropped 4 percent, the first decline since the World Bank begun measuring the indicator in 1990, a report saysReuters, WASHINGTONWorld Bank president David Malpass on Wednesday said that it could take years for global energy production to diversify away from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, prolonging the risk of stagflation, or a period of low growth and high inflation. Those developments would have grave consequences for developing countries, Malpass said, citing what he called “consequential” and “worsening” challenges facing development. A volunteer packs boxes of food for distribution at the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington on Oct. 5 last year. Such adjustments would improve the allocation of global capital, providing a path to reduce inflation while restarting growth in median income, he said. More funding for education, health preparedness and adaptation to climate change was urgently needed, he said, along with steps to reduce the staggering debt levels burdening many developing countries.

Sales of gaming monitors to fall for first time: reportUPDATED FORECAST: Consumers are putting off buying monitors due to rising inflation and delayed launches of new high-end graphics cards, TrendForce Corp saidBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterShipments of gaming monitors are expected to plunge 10 percent year-on-year to 20.5 million units this year, which would mark the first decline since the products first entered the market, researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. The researcher in March estimated that gaming monitor shipments would expand at an annual pace of 14 percent to about 26.1 million units this year. Sony Group Corp. Inzone headsets and Inzone gaming monitors displayed during an unveiling event in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Photo: BloombergConsumers are also putting off purchases of gaming monitors due to delayed launches of new high-end graphics cards, the Taipei-based researcher said. The uptake of gaming monitors with ultra-wide displays also helps stimulate demand for curved-display gaming monitors, it said.

PLA not capable of attack ‘for 10 years’HIGH STAKES: An attack on Taiwan could prompt a joint response from the US and Japan, and trigger a global conflict that could bring down the CCP, Liu Tai-ying said The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would not be able to launch an invasion of Taiwan for at least another 10 years, Taiwan Research Institute founder Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) said on Friday. To occupy Taiwan, China needs to transport at least 300,000 to 400,000 troops across the Taiwan Strait during battle, but it would lack the ability to do so for at least another decade, said Liu, a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) treasurer and a close aide to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). The challenges that China would face during an attempted invasion of Taiwan would be even greater than thoseBy Ou Hsiang-yi and William Hetherington

Deflation looms in China amid property crisisBloombergChina faces increasing risks from deflation as demand crumbles under the weight of an ongoing property crisis and is threatened by continued COVID-19 restrictions — a stark contrast with other major economies, a private survey showed. Photo: Bloomberg“While nearly the whole world panics over surging inflation, the specter of deflation looms over China thanks to the demand-crushing effects of COVID Zero,” CBBI chief executive officer Leland Miller said in a statement. “A closer look at our sector results provides some relief,” the report said, noting the pickup in retail and services. “Property has been taken out as a growth driver going forward, so you’re gonna have much slower growth completely independent of what’s happening with COVID,” Miller said. Retail and services showed a recovery in those indicators from the second quarter, though they remained below last year’s levels.

Economic ‘status quo’ is changing, US’ Pompeo says‘TURNING POINT’: The US must engage with China ‘realistically and on our terms,’ which would include ‘more enthusiastic ties’ with Taiwan, Mike Pompeo saidBy Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, in KAOHSIUNGThe economic “status quo,” which benefits China, is changing, presenting opportunities for closer cooperation between Taiwan and the US, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told a business forum in Kaohsiung yesterday. Pompeo is visiting Taiwan for the second time this year to attend the Global Taiwan Business Forum, organized by the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, third left, Vice President William Lai, fourth left, and other speakers attend the Global Taiwan Business Forum at the Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel yesterday. Pompeo said that as secretary of state he and his department grappled with some fundamental questions about long-standing US policy toward China. People outside the Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel yesterday hold signs welcoming former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo to Taiwan and advocating independence.

Adani Group to invest US$100bn in next decadeINEXPENSIVE POWER: Group chairman Gautam Adani said 70% of the investment would go into energy transition, with a focus on green hydrogenReuters, NEW DELHIIndia’s Adani Group is to invest more than US$100 billion over the next decade, most of it in the energy transition business, chairman Gautam Adani said yesterday, as the ports-to-energy conglomerate accelerates an already aggressive expansion plan. “As a group, we will invest over US$100 billion of capital in the next decade,” Adani, the world’s second-richest person, told the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore. Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani speaks at the Forbes CEO Summit in Singapore yesterday. We are already the world’s largest solar player, and we intend to do far more,” he said. Adani said his group was India’s largest airport operator, with 25 percent of passenger traffic and 40 percent of air cargo.

Leading indicators slow for 10th straight monthBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterThe nation’s economy continued to show signs of a slowdown, with the index of leading indicators for last month falling 0.94 percent to 96.38 points from July, marking the 10th consecutive month of decline, the National Development Council said yesterday. Photo: Lam Yik Fei, BloombergLast month’s index of coincident indicators, which tracks the current pace of economic activity, decreased by 1.43 percent to 96.89, falling for a seventh consecutive month, the report showed. All seven components of the index fell from the previous month, the council said. The total score of monitoring indicators for last month was 23 points, down from 24 points in July, flashing a “green light” for a sixth consecutive month, implying steady growth, the report showed. The government will be closely monitoring the economic situation, the council said in the report.

Qualcomm sets up second Taiwan innovation centerHEADING SOUTH: The US company chose Kaohsiung as its site as more customers, partners and start-ups have expanded their operations to the southern city Qualcomm Inc yesterday inaugurated a new innovation center in Kaohsiung as it steps up efforts to foster local start-ups and a 5G technology ecosystem in the city, following in the footsteps of its local partners. The US chip company’s move fits the Kaohsiung City Government’s plan to build a semiconductor supply chain within the next five years, highlighted by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) first chip plant in the city. TSMC plans to start building the factory by the end of this year, and to start production of 28-nanometer and 7-nanometer chips there in 2024. Qualcomm said it had beenBy Lisa Wang

Apple Inc begins making iPhone 14 in India weeks ahead of scheduleBloombergApple Inc began making its new iPhone 14 in India sooner than anticipated, after a surprisingly smooth production rollout that slashed the lag between Chinese and Indian output from months to mere weeks. Apple Inc iPhones are displayed at the company’s Fifth Avenue store in New York on Sept. 16. “To turn India into a major manufacturing site, Apple will help India accelerate its production timeline,” he said. “We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India,” Apple said in a statement yesterday without discussing a production timeline. Apple’s partners began making iPhones in India in 2017, the start of a years-long effort to build manufacturing capabilities in the country.

Fuel prices stay unchangedBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterGasoline and diesel prices are to remain unchanged this week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday, even though international crude oil prices moved lower. Gasoline prices at CPC stations are to stay at NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the state-run refiner said in a statement. The United Arab Emirates’ planned increase in oil production and the US Federal Reserve’s 75 basis-point rate increase led to decreases in international crude oil prices last week, CPC said. Based on its floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil last week decreased 0.9 percent from a week earlier, it said. Formosa Petrochemical’s prices for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline are to stay at NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter respectively, while the price of premium diesel is to remain at NT$26.7 per liter, the company said.

Ian Easton On Taiwan: Revisiting America’s security strategy for TaiwanThe United States may soon find it somewhere between difficult and near impossible to maintain a sufficiently favorable balance of power against the People’s Republic of China in the Western Pacific. Taiwan ranks among the top ten democratic countries in the world and deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. Since 1979, the most tangible manifestation of Taiwan’s international political legitimacy has been American arms sales. Multiple administrations (including that of President Joe Biden) have bought into the false narrative that frequent, high-quality arms sales are too provocative to Beijing. It would be unwise for the US-Taiwan military and security relationship to continue being so heavily dependent upon arms sales alone.

Health start-up uses electrodes to treat depressionBy Sarah McBride / BloombergThis summer, doctors in St Louis, Missouri, shaved away a small part of a person’s skull and replaced it with electrodes. Inner Cosmos, the start-up behind the surgery, is one of a growing cadre of tech companies working on implanted devices for the brain. The trial, the first of its kind using implants in the bone of the skull to treat depression, represents a step forward for scientists’ efforts to treat mood disorders with hardware. New York-based Synchron, which has raised more than US$60 million, avoids brain surgery by sending electrodes to the brain through blood vessels, in a stent. The area Inner Cosmos targets is similar to that of another technique, known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, which does not require surgery, but takes longer to implement than the Inner Cosmos device.

Photo: AFPThese moves have attracted the kind of criticism Saudi Arabian officials have come to expect, with some e-sports leaders objecting to Riyadh’s human rights record. Saudi Arabian gamers are reveling in their country’s newfound status and the eye-watering prize pools it brings. The national e-sports federation was created in 2017, and the number of e-sports teams in the kingdom has since blossomed from two to more than 100. The outcry was immediate and intense, led by LGBTQ gamers who condemned Saudi Arabia’s prohibition of same-sex sexual acts, which can be a capital offense. Saudi Arabian officials are undeterred, and they have deep backing in the e-sports world.

Chinese devices ban not enforced: groupEYE ON DIGIFOCUS: Researchers said that a Taipei-based distributor of cameras and other devices has ‘Taiwanese skin,’ but is Chinese company Hikvision ‘on the inside’By Jason Pan / Staff reporterPeople’s movements in public have been exposed and national security has been breached because ministries have failed to enforce a ban of Chinese-made electronic displays and video recording devices, the Economic Democracy Union said yesterday. However, Economic Democracy Union members have uncovered examples where the rules are not being followed, he said, adding that ministries have been negligent in enforcing the ban. Hikvision circumvented the restrictions by using its distribution company in Taiwan, Taipei-based DigiFocus Co, Economic Democracy Union researcher Ou Hsu-shao (歐栩韶) said. “DigiFocus secured a government contract of the economic ministry’s Industrial Development Bureau to supply video cameras and other devices,” Ou said. “When surveillance cameras and monitoring devices made by Chinese companies are installed in Taiwan, everyone might be under the eye of the Chinese government,” she said.

GSK transforms to improve pharmaceutical operationsStaff writerGlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in July made its consumer health products division a separate entity as it transforms into a world-leading biopharmaceutical company. Mick Stanley, VP and General Manager of GSK Taiwan, says,"after transforming the organization our new ambitions and new purpose is to expand our impact here in Taiwan." For example, GSK Taiwan has recently launched a new vaccine against the herpes zoster virus to protect against shingles. In addition to vaccines, GSK also leads the industry in the treatment and prevention of diseases such as respiratory illnesses. For people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other respiratory diseases who need drugs for treatment, GSK helps them with a variety of inhaled medicines.