China’s central bank said the US Federal Reserve has a responsibility to consider the global effects of its actions after emerging-market economies suffered from capital inflows.
Because the US dollar is the world’s main reserve currency, the Fed “may have more responsibility not only to consider the US economy, but also the global economy,” People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) Zhou said yesterday during a panel discussion at the Boao Forum for Asia — a gathering of government and business leaders — on Hainan Island.
Zhou’s comments reprise criticism of the US from emerging nations, which said that so-called quantitative easing was sending unwanted cash into their economies, adding to inflationary risks.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week the central bank would consider further stimulus, even after upgrading its economic outlook on March 13.
For China and some other emerging economies, the policy goal is to “gradually bring inflation down” to help achieve a so-called soft landing, and China is using interest rates combined with additional tools to achieve that, Zhou said.
The governor declined to comment when asked if the central bank is planning any adjustments to monetary policy.
Expanding domestic demand and reducing the trade surplus have also been part of China’s strategic plan since the global financial crisis, Zhou said.
Analysts in a Bloomberg News survey last week unanimously said that banks’ reserve requirements would fall this year, while nine of 20 predicted lower benchmark borrowing costs.
China’s economy might have expanded about 8.4 percent in the first quarter, the least since the first half of 2009, according to an estimate given by an official 10 days before the data are due.
National Reform and Development Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Xiaoqiang (張曉強) cited “relevant China research institutes’ initial figures” for the estimate and predicted a gain of about 3.5 percent in consumer prices.
The growth figure compares with the 8.3 percent median estimate of 28 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The fifth straight slowdown in quarterly growth will underscore concerns that weakness in the Chinese economy is set to limit a global expansion already capped by Europe’s austerity measures.
“The final number will be very close to 8.4 percent,” Lu Ting (陸挺), chief Greater China economist at Bank of America Corp in Hong Kong, said in an interview in Boao.
“They can get a relatively accurate forecast or estimate of first-quarter GDP,” he added.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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