Australia’s economy is “growing solidly” and capital expenditure by businesses is forecast to rise 32 percent to a record A$158 billion (US$161 billion) this financial year, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday.
“That spending, although a drag on productivity now, will increase our economy’s capacity down the track,” Swan said in his weekly economic note.
INVESTMENT
Photo: AFP
His office yesterday released an interim report on the tax treatment of losses for public comment in a move he said could “encourage investment in businesses that are struggling or that are just starting up.”
Australia, which was the only economy in the G10 to avoid a recession during the global credit crisis, expanded 1 percent in the third quarter, faster than earlier estimated.
Still, the country’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Tuesday for a second straight month, citing Europe’s “much more difficult” financing conditions.
The cut marked the Reserve Bank of Australia’s first consecutive easing since the depths of the world financial crisis in 2009 and reflected a worsening global outlook that is weighing on Australia’s exports.
“There’s no doubt the global instability is hitting our economy and our budget,” Swan said.
ACTION NEEDED
“European leaders made progress during the week on addressing the sovereign debt crisis, but clearly the world now wants to see the talk turned into action,” he said.
“The global community and international financial markets need to see the full details and swift implementation of Europe’s plans,” Swan added.
Swan said that the government intended to boost productivity in Australia, which has declined following “a decade of neglect of investment in critical infrastructure and skills.”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained