Inflation jumped to a startling 3 percent last month in the 17 countries that use the euro, a surprise increase that makes it less likely the European Central Bank (ECB) will cut interest rates as soon as next week to head off a recession partly stemming from the eurozone debt crisis.
The rate reported yesterday from the EU’s statistics agency was the highest since October 2008 and represented a big increase from August’s 2.5 percent. The scale of the rise was unexpected.
The ECB, the chief monetary authority for the euro countries, has come under pressure to cut interest rates soon to ward off mounting signs of recession in the eurozone economy, which has come off the boil of late because of a waning global recovery and ongoing concerns surrounding Europe’s debt crisis.
Leading economic indicators have been falling to the point where some predict a downturn is imminent, after a weak 0.2 percent growth figure for the second quarter. Separate figures yesterday from the statistics office showed unemployment in the eurozone stuck at 10 percent in August.
“The latest eurozone CPI inflation and unemployment numbers would appear to reduce the chance of an imminent ECB rate cut,” said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics.
The statistics office did not provide any details behind the surprisingly big increase. That will have to wait until the middle of next month when it publishes a more complete assessment.
However, German figures earlier this week showed inflation running at a higher-than-expected 2.6 percent on the back of higher oil prices and increases in the prices of clothing and shoes as merchants put out new fall and winter offerings.
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