Europeans are tightening their belts and spending less on Christmas gifts this year as they struggle with incomes hit by austerity measures or fear the economy could worsen in next year.
Sharp spending cuts and tax hikes caused by the debt crisis in countries such as Britain, Italy, Greece and Spain, along with fears of a recession next year, are leading many consumers to cut back their spending despite a flurry of promotions.
“Many shoppers this year find they need to consider their spending more astutely, reduce the number of people on their Christmas lists and turn to more practical and useful presents when gift giving,” said Deloitte in its annual Christmas spending survey.
The consulting firm estimated in September that overall Europeans would trim their spending on Christmas gifts, food and entertainment this year by an average of 0.8 percent to 587 euros (US$763), although the results vary considerably by country.
With the deepening of the crisis over the past two months the belt-tightening is likely to be even greater.
This is something that many Chinese manufacturers who were left with piles of unsold toys and decorations discovered first hand.
Jean-Emile Rosenblum, cofounder and vice president of the Pixmania electronics and photo publishing Web site that operates in 26 countries, estimates a 5 percent to 7 percent drop in the average sale amount as customers cut back.
“There has been a crisis effect, cheaper products are selling, consumers are looking for the cheapest prices,” he said.
“There are countries where things are getting tougher and tougher,” added Rosenblum, citing in particular southern European countries.
While Deloitte was still forecasting in September a modest gain in holiday spending in France at 1.9 percent to 606 euros per household, the CREDOC research group expects spending on gifts to fall although food expenses should hold up.
Internet retailers are some of the few to have something to cheer about as bargain-hunting consumers flock to the Web.
“In times of reduced spending people turn in particular to e-commerce,” said Xavier Garambois, head of the Amazon in France.
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to