The Bank of England said yesterday it had trimmed its key interest rate by a quarter-point to 5.50 percent and warned of slowing British economic growth as a result of turmoil on world financial markets.
The decision, the first rate cut since August 2005, comes as the world's central banks are grappling with the risk of higher inflation and the economic repercussions of a global credit crunch on other markets.
SLOWING DOWN
"Although output in the United Kingdom has expanded at a brisk pace for the past two years, there are now signs that growth has begun to slow," the British central bank said in a statement announcing the news.
"Conditions in financial markets have deteriorated and a tightening in the supply of credit to households and businesses is in train, posing downside risks to the outlook for both output and inflation further ahead," it said.
The announcement was made shortly before the European Central Bank was predicted to keep eurozone borrowing costs at 4 percent.
US FED
The US Federal Reserve is meanwhile expected to lower US interest rates to 4.25 percent next week as it attempts to combat credit and housing problems.
Some analysts had expected the Bank of England to freeze borrowing costs because of higher inflation, while others had argued for a cut amid a cooling housing market and the prospect of slowing economic growth.
Prior to this month, the central bank had frozen rates for four months in a row at 5.75 percent -- the highest level for six-and-a-half years -- amid uncertainty over the worldwide credit squeeze.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy