GERMANY
Consumer confidence falls
German consumer sentiment has been undermined by the eurozone debt crisis and fears of a new recession, falling to its lowest level since late last year, the GfK research institute said yesterday. GfK released its latest index of household confidence, forecasting 5.2 points next month, the lowest figure since November last year, a statement said. The institute also revised an estimate for this month down to 5.3 points from the initial figure of 5.4. Recent sharp drops on global stock markets, in addition to worries that the economy could begin to contract again have dealt a severe blow to the morale of German shoppers, the statement said.
ECONOMY
France cuts GDP outlook
France scaled back its economic growth expectations on Wednesday and announced it will seek 11 billion euros (US$16 billion) in additional budget savings next year to ensure it stays on track with deficit targets. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the government has cut its outlook for next year’s GDP growth to 1.75 percent from 2.25 percent. It has also trimmed this year’s growth forecast to 1.75 percent from 2.0 percent. Explaining that debt mountains in the rich world were dragging on global growth, Fillon said the government will seek to impose a new 3 percent tax on annual revenues above 500,000 euros and modify a tax on real-estate capital gains as it tries to stick to a deficit target of 4.5 percent of GDP next year.
COMMODITIES
Glencore beats expectations
Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore International PLC has reported a first-half profit attributable to shareholders of US$2.47 billion. Analysts had predicted a profit of US$2.3 billion for the integrated trading company that extracts, ships and trades staples such as coal, corn and copper. The company posted a profit of US$1.08 billion during the first six months of last year. Glencore said its earnings before interest and tax reached US$3.3 billion in the first half, up from US$2.2 billion in the same period last year. Chief executive Ivan Glasenberg said yesterday that he foresees commodities prices remaining stable due to limited supply.
SHIPPING
DP World’s profit leaps
Port operator DP World said yesterday its profit more than tripled in the first half of the year as trade increased and it booked a large gain by selling off much of its Australian business. Even without that one-time boost, the Dubai-based cargo handler said profit was up 36 percent. However, the world’s third-largest port operator cautioned that its forecast for the second half of this year — typically a stronger period for the industry — remains foggy amid concerns about a global slowdown. The company posted a first-half profit of US$740.9 million, up from US$219.2 million in the same period last year.
BEVERAGES
Diageo reports earnings
Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits group, set an ambitious 10 percent-plus growth target, when beating forecasts with a 16 percent rise in full-year earnings that lifted its shares. The British maker of Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky said yesterday it had not seen the effect of poor weather and weak consumer demand which undermined brewer Heineken. London-based Diageo posted underlying earnings of £0.836 per share, beating a Reuters Smart-Estimate of £0.789 and a company-compiled consensus of £0.791 for the year to June. The full-year dividend rose 6 percent to £0.404.
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],”
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
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