UNITED STATES
Economy is expanding: Fed
The economy expanded at a slow to moderate pace in most areas of the US over the past two months, according to a Federal Reserve survey. A modest pickup in consumer spending, tourism and manufacturing drove the growth. The Fed said economic conditions improved in all but one of its 12 bank districts. The one exception was the St Louis District, where conditions declined. However, hiring was weak in most areas. Businesses in six of the Fed regions said they had a hard time finding qualified workers for those jobs that were open, particularly for high-skilled manufacturing and tech jobs. The report, known as the Beige Book, covered the period from Oct. 8 through the middle of last month.
FRANCE
Economic pessimism rising
People are more pessimistic about the future of the economy than any time since the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, according to a poll released yesterday. In the BVA poll 83 percent of respondents said they were less confident about the future of the economy, while 16 percent were confident. One percent did not express an opinion. The result was the worst since October 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers caused turmoil in global financial markets. The BVA survey questioned a statistically representative sample of 1,405 people aged 15 and above from Nov. 24 to Nov. 25.
SOUTH KOREA
Inflation on the rise again
The annual inflation rate was 4.2 percent last month, official figures showed yesterday, back above the central bank’s target range, despite a revision of the consumer price index. The figure announced by Statistics Korea compared with a revised 3.6 percent increase in October. However, it was below the median forecast for a 4.5 percent rise in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of seven economists. Month-on-month, the index rose by 0.1 percent last month. The increase — blamed on food prices — came despite a recalibration of the price index that cut the year-to-date inflation figure by 40 basis points. The Bank of Korea has set a 2 percent to 4 percent target range for inflation this year.
THAILAND
Inflation remains moderate
Inflation held steady last month, government data showed yesterday, as the country’s worst flooding in decades caused widespread damage to farmland and forced food prices higher. The consumer price index rose 4.19 percent last month from a year earlier, against a similar 4.19 percent rise in October, the Ministry of Commerce reported. Core inflation last month, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, rose 2.9 percent compared with last year, but the increase remained within the central bank’s 0.5 percent to 3 percent target range.
BANKING
UBS appoints new risk head
UBS AG, the Swiss bank that reported a US$2.3 billion loss from unauthorized trading in September, appointed Philip Lofts as the group’s chief risk officer, replacing Maureen Miskovic, who is leaving the firm after less than a year. Robert McCann, head of the wealth management Americas unit, will also assume Lofts’ previous role of chief executive officer of all business in the Americas, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement yesterday. Chief operating officer Ulrich Koerner, 49, will take on additional responsibility for business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the role filled by Sergio Ermotti before his appointment as group chief executive last month.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by