SOUTH KOREA
Jobless rate hits high
South Korea’s unemployment rate rose to an 11-month high last month, due partly to the graduation of university students who are categorized as jobless, official figures showed yesterday. The jobless rate was 4.2 percent last month, up from 3.5 percent in January, Statistics Korea said. It was the highest percentage since March last year when the rate reached 4.3 percent. Job creation also declined, with 447,000 jobs added to payrolls compared to February 2011. Some 536,000 jobs were created in January.
INDIA
Inflation accelerating
Inflation accelerated unexpectedly to nearly 7 percent last month, data showed yesterday, dimming hopes of an early interest rate cut to offset slowing economic growth. The closely watched Wholesale Price Index rose to 6.95 percent from a year ago last month, driven by higher food costs and increased fuel prices as global oil costs boosted the country’s import bill. The inflation reading was higher than the 6.55 percent rate logged in January, which was a 26-month low and exceeded analysts’ expectations of around a 6.80 percent year-on-year rise.
UNITED KINGDOM
Inflation entries changed
Tablet computers like Apple’s iPad and teenage fiction such as the popular vampire-themed Twilight series now form part of the official inflation benchmark, the country’s statistics agency said on Tuesday. The Office for National Statistics said the new entrants replace items that have fallen out of favor — such as glass casserole dishes used for slow-cooked meals and the cost of developing photographic film.
AIRLINES
Cathay Pacific’s profits fall
Cathay Pacific yesterday said its net profit plunged 61 percent last year as it struggled with high fuel prices as well as softening demand for its cargo business, and warned of a challenging year this year. The Hong Kong flag carrier said it earned HK$5.5 billion (US$709 million) last year, well below the record HK$14.0 billion profit it recorded in 2010, despite a 9.9 percent increase in total revenue to HK$98.41 billion. Passenger revenue for the year rose 14.2 percent to HK$67.78 billion. It carried a total of 27.6 million passengers last year, a rise of 2.9 percent from 2010, as demand for premium-class travel remained robust.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Bayer sees strong growth
German pharmaceuticals and chemicals giant Bayer, maker of Aspirin, yesterday said it expected strong growth in its key pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals divisions in the next few years. At Bayer’s healthcare division, sales were expected to reach “approximately 20 billion euros [US$26 billion] in 2014” from 17.169 billion euros last year. The crop science division would raise sales to “more than 8.0 billion euros” in 2014 from 7.255 billion euros last year.
INTERNET
Dell buying SonicWALL
US computer maker Dell on Tuesday announced a deal to buy network security firm SonicWALL to ramp up its offerings of Internet-based software services. Texas-based Dell did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition, which was estimated in online reports to tally more than a billion dollars. “Our customers see security as a key IT concern for the foreseeable future,” Dell software group president John Swainson said in a release. SonicWALL was founded in 1991 and has its headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose, California.
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