Fitch Ratings raised Hong Kong’s debt rating to its second-highest ranking, citing the city’s fiscal strength and ability to weather external shocks with reserves.
Hong Kong’s long-term international debt rating was lifted to AA+ from AA, with a stable outlook, Fitch said in a statement yesterday. The long-term local debt rating was kept at AA+ level.
Strong economic growth and the government’s “prudent fiscal management” in Hong Kong were the reasons for the upgrade, the ratings company said.
Moody’s Investors Service on Nov. 11 upgraded Hong Kong’s government bond ratings to its second-highest ranking, citing the city’s economic links to China, whose ratings were raised on the same day.
“Hong Kong has withstood the global financial crisis with its strong external financial position, solid public finances, well-regulated and capitalized banking system,” Vincent Ho (何永燊), a Hong Kong-based associate director at Fitch, said in an interview yesterday.
Hong Kong has fiscal reserves equivalent to 31 percent of its GDP and “virtually zero” public fiscal debt, Fitch said. The company estimated the city’s foreign exchange reserves will rise from US$267 billion at the end of last month to US$300 billion by the end of 2012, the release said.
The IMF said on Nov. 18 that Hong Kong runs the risk of an economic downturn due to rising asset prices and urged the city’s government to take more measures to curb the housing market.
One day later, Hong Kong announced additional taxes for homes resold within two years and increased down-payments for some mortgages.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San