Japanese business confidence has improved for a sixth straight quarter, but companies are expecting a gloomy end of the year amid increased global economic uncertainty, the Bank of Japan said yesterday.
Sentiment among major manufacturers rose to a higher-than--expected reading of eight this month from one in June, according to the central bank’s closely watched Tankan survey of more than 11,000 firms.
The latest figure shows that optimists still outweigh pessimists among major manufacturers in terms of their view of Japan’s economic climate, in only the second positive reading since June 2008.
However, the forecast for the December survey is for a reading of minus one, suggesting that companies expect conditions to sharply worsen in the months ahead, as Japan remains beset by deflation and the effects of a strong yen.
The strong yen has hurt exporters, making their goods more expensive and eroding companies’ overseas profits when repatriated. Exports, a crucial driver for -Japan’s growth, expanded at their slowest pace this year last month, as the impact of the yen’s strength and softening overseas demand illustrated the risks threatening a fragile recovery.
The reading was made with companies expecting an exchange rate of ¥89.44 to the US dollar, higher than in the previous survey, but much lower than current levels, which if sustained will further erode confidence.
Yesterday, videogame giant Nintendo slashed its expected net profit and cut sales projections for the year to March next year, citing the recent strength of the yen, among other factors.
The console maker slashed its full year net profit forecast 55 percent from ¥200 billion (US$2.38 -billion) to ¥90 billion with net sales expected to fall from ¥1.4 trillion to ¥1.1 trillion.
Meanwhile, the US dollar hit an eight-month low yesterday, driving gold to a record high, on rising expectations the US Federal Reserve will act again to help the struggling economy.
Gold rose as the Fed and Bank of Japan look to pump more funds into markets via bond purchases and other measures to help their struggling economies.
Gold closed at a record-high US$1,310.00 to US$1,311.00 an ounce in Hong Kong yesterday as traders sought the safe haven amid uncertainty over the global economy. The precious metal was well up from Tuesday’s finish of US$1,287.00 to US$1,288.00.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the