GERMANY
Inflation jumps to 2.3%
Inflation in Germany jumped to 2.3 percent for the whole of last year, its highest level in three years and above European Central Bank targets, official data showed yesterday. Soaring energy prices pushed the consumer price index for the eurozone’s largest economy up by an annual average 2.3 percent last year, compared with 1.1 percent in 2010 and 0.4 percent in 2009, the national statistics office Destatis said in a statement. Excluding energy prices, inflation would have reached only 1.3 percent last year, the statisticians calculated. The European Central Bank aims to keep inflation in the 17-nation eurozone close to, but below 2 percent. Inflation in Germany exceeded that level in every month last year, Destatis said.
INDIA
Industrial production rises
India’s industrial production rebounded in November, government data showed yesterday, providing some relief to Asia’s third-largest economy, which has been struggling with slowing growth and high inflation. Industrial production grew 5.9 percent in November, more than expected, thanks to revived consumer spending, the data showed. Output shrank 4.7 percent in October, a bit less than estimated earlier. However, economists caution that industrial production numbers are choppy and say the Reserve Bank is unlikely to reverse months of rate hikes when it meets later this month, unless it gets strong evidence that inflation is cooling.
JAPAN
Current account surplus falls
Japan’s current account surplus fell 85.5 percent in November as the nation ran a trade deficit because of higher energy costs, government data showed yesterday. The surplus in the current account, the broadest measure of its trade with the rest of the world, was down year-on-year for the ninth straight month since the March earthquake and tsunami disasters. The surplus for November stood at ¥138.5 billion (US$1.8 billion), with the trade deficit reaching ¥585.1 billion against a surplus of ¥256.2 billion a year earlier.
CHINA
Vehicle sales rise slightly
Industry figures show vehicle sales in China rose a scant 2.5 percent in 2010 as higher prices and traffic controls kept buyers out of showrooms, but the market remained the world’s biggest. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported yesterday that total vehicle sales rose to 18.5 million last year, up from 18 million in 2009, when sales rose 32 percent. In contrast, US auto sales jumped 10 percent to 12.8 million vehicles last year. The expiration of tax incentives and subsidies, along with restrictions on car purchases in Beijing, slowed sales, which had grown at a double-digit pace every year since 1999 — apart from in 2008, at the height of the global crisis.
AUTOMAKERS
Fiat, Chrysler rumor ‘untrue’
Fiat SpA and Chrysler Group LLC might consider looking for a “third partner” before Chrysler returns to the stock market in 2013, CEO Sergio Marchionne said yesterday in an interview in the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Marchionne said it “isn’t true” that Fiat and Chrysler want to buy General Motor Co’s Opel unit in Europe or are seeking a combination with PSA Peugeot Citroen, according to the newspaper. “I was at dinner on Tuesday with Philippe Varin, the CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroen, and we talked about everything except” a possible merger, Rzeczpospolita quoted Marchionne as saying.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure