The German economy, Europe’s biggest, grew by 1.5 percent in the first quarter as investment and spending at home combined with already-buoyant exports, official figures showed yesterday.
The quarter-on-quarter rise was above economists’ forecasts and nearly four times the 0.4 percent growth recorded in the last three months of last year, when economic activity was impacted by a harsh winter. It was also higher than expected in the markets, where the consensus was that Germany’s GDP would grow by 1 percent.
The January-to-March figure was the strongest since a 2.1 percent spurt in last year’s second quarter, when the German economy was just emerging from a savage recession.
“Germany is the engine of growth among industrial countries — and not just in Europe,” German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said.
The German economy has benefited over the past year from strong demand for machinery, cars and other goods from a recovering global economy — coupled with improving domestic demand.
Data released earlier this week showed that German exports and imports both rose in March to their highest monthly level since the country started keeping records in 1950.
However, “the balance of exports and imports had a smaller share in the strong GDP growth than domestic uses” this time around, the statistical office said.
It pointed to investment in equipment and construction, as well as consumer spending.
In year-on-year terms, the German economy grew by 5.2 percent — the strongest performance since reunification two decades ago.
Meanwhile, France’s national statistics office said economic growth had accelerated in the first quarter thanks to higher consumer spending and corporate investment.
The Insee statistics agency said in a statement yesterday that the French economy grew 1 percent in the first quarter, well above the 0.3 percent growth recorded in the final quarter of last year and faster than the 0.6 percent that Insee forecast in March.
Insee said imports outpaced exports in the first quarter.
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
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