BusinessToday Previous Editions

4 NEWS 8.12.2022 Microsoft to roll out 'data boundary' for EU customers from 2023 MICROSOFT has announced that as from January 1st 2023 its European Union cloud customers will be able to process and store parts of their data in the EU region. e phased rollout of its "EU data boundary" will apply to all of its core cloud services namely Azure, Microsoft 365, Dy- namics 365 and Power BI platform. Big businesses have become in- creasingly anxious about the inter- national flow of customer data since the EU introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, which protects user privacy. Microsoft operates more than a dozen datacentres across European countries including France, Germa- ny, Spain and Switzerland. e bloc's executive arm, the Eu- ropean Commission, is working through proposals to protect the pri- vacy of European users whose data is transferred to the United States. "As we dived deeper into this pro- ject, we learned that we needed to be taking a more phased approach," Julie Brill, Microsoft's Chief Privacy Officer, told Reuters. "e first phase will be custom- er data. And then as we move into the next phases, we will be moving logging data, service data and other kind of data into the boundary," she said. e second phase will be com- pleted at the end of 2023 and phase three will be completed in 2024, she said. For big companies, data storage has become so large and distribut- ed across so many countries that it becomes difficult for them to under- stand where their data resides and if it complies with rules such as GDPR. "We are creating this solution to make our customers feel more confi- dent and to be able to have clear con- versations with their regulators on where their data is being processed as well as stored," added Julie Brill. As from 1 January 2023, Microso will start storing EU customers' data in Europe APS Bank plc has announced that Joseph Rapa has been appointed as Non-Executive Director, effective from 1 January 2023, filling the seat to be va- cated by Victor Gusman following his notice of retirement at the end of the year. Rapa has been appointed to the office by the Diocese of Gozo, as Qualifying Shareholder, following also the receipt of regulatory approval from the MFSA. Rapa holds a B.A. (Hons) degree in Public Administration from the Uni- versity of Malta, and a Master Business Administration degree from the Rotter- dam School of Management Erasmus University. He started his career in 1990 at the Economic Policy Department, Ministry of Finance, Malta. In 2012 he was ap- pointed Director General, responsible for leading teams providing technical economic and financial analysis, includ- ing advice to the Ministry on macroe- conomic management, fiscal policy and on macro-prudential issues. Between March 2013 and May 2022, he served as Permanent Secretary at the Ministry for Health and was responsi- ble for general management functions within the Ministry, with responsibili- ties for human resources management, strategic management, financial budg- eting/planning and management as well as for the exercise of internal control. He currently carries out duties of over- sight over the management of EU funds in Malta, within the Ministry for the Economy, European Funds and Lands. e Board expressed its appreciation of Mr Gusman's commitment and con- tribution as Director and wishes him well for the future. Martin Scicluna, APS Bank Chairman, commented, "I am very pleased to welcome Joseph to the Board. His appointment will broad- en and deepen expertise in risk man- agement, internal controls and finance strategy. We look forward to working with him." Change of directors at APS Bank Joseph Rapa IN November, the annual rate of in- flation as measured by the RPI was 7.12 per cent, down from the 7.47 per cent in October 2022. The 12-month moving average rate for November stood at 5.76 per cent. The largest upward impact on annual inflation was measured in the Food Index (+2.69 percentage points). The RPI measures monthly price changes in the cost of purchasing a representative basket of consumer goods and services. A closely relat- ed measure of price movements is the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). Each monthly RPI news release in- cludes three different measures of inflation: i. The annual inflation rate meas- ures average price changes between the reference month and the same month of the previous year. Al- though responsive to recent changes in price levels, this measure can be influenced by one-off effects in ei- ther month. ii. The monthly inflation rate com- pares price changes between the reference month and the previous month. This measure can be highly influenced by seasonal effects. iii. The 12-month moving average rate overcomes the volatility of the above two rates by comparing the av- erage of the latest 12 indices to the average of the previous 12 indices. This measure is less sensitive to tem- porary changes in prices. Price changes and effects on inflation The highest annual inflation rates in November 2022 were registered in Housing (19.01 per cent) and Food (12.52 per cent). On the other hand, the lowest annual inflation rates were registered in Water, electricity, gas and fuels (0.00 per cent) and Cloth- ing and footwear (1.27 per cent). In November 2022, the largest up- ward impact on annual inflation was registered in the Food Index (+2.69 percentage points), largely due to higher prices of take-aways. The second and third largest im- pacts were measured in the Housing Index (+1.50 percentage points) and the Household equipment and house maintenance costs Index (+0.60 per- centage points), mainly on account of higher prices of house maintenance services and furniture, respectively. On the other hand, no downward impacts on annual inflation were registered for the month of Novem- ber. Annual rate of inflation as measured by the RPI was 7.12 per cent in November

• Cover