TECHNOLOGY
Sony’s SmartWatch on sale
Sony on Thursday released an Internet-linked wristwatch powered by Google-backed Android software. SmartWatch gets online by connecting wirelessly to a wearer’s Android smartphone using Bluetooth technology, according to Sony. SmartWatch can switch from displaying time to acting as a touchscreen interface for smartphone information. Mini-applications tailored to add features to SmartWatch devices were available at the Google Play online shop.
SOUTH KOREA
Interest rates hold steady
The central bank yesterday held its key interest rate for a 10th straight month amid lingering concerns about inflation and slow economic recovery. Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong-soo said its Monetary Policy Committee unanimously decided to hold the benchmark seven-day repo rate at 3.25 percent for this month. Consumer inflation fell to a 20-month low of 2.6 percent last month. However, inflation expectation — a key gauge for rate policy decisions — has hovered around the upper limit of the bank’s 2 to 4 percent target range over the past year.
ECONOMY
Spanish inflation slows
Inflation in Spain slowed again last month, reaching its lowest point since August 2010, according to final official data published yesterday. The consumer price index rose by 1.8 percent on a 12-month basis last month, the national statistics office Ine said in a statement. Inflation has been slowing nearly every month since April last year’s level of 3.5 percent, with the exception of September and October when it rose to 3 percent.
ECONOMY
Germany inflation slows
Inflation in Germany slowed last month as energy prices increased at a weaker pace than a year ago. Inflation eased to 2.3 percent from 2.5 percent in February, the Federal Statistics Office said yesterday, confirming a March 28 estimate. Prices rose 0.4 percent in the month. Energy prices rose 6.7 percent last month from a year earlier, the statistics office said. If energy prices were stripped out of the index, Germany’s non-harmonized inflation rate would have been 1.6 percent last month instead of 2.1 percent, it said.
STEEL
India challenges US duties
India has launched a trade dispute to challenge US duties on certain steel products, the WTO said on Thursday. The WTO gave no details, but said India had “requested consultations” with the US — the first stage of a formal trade dispute — over US countervailing duties. The US Commerce Department last month set a preliminary import duty of nearly 286 percent on a circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from India to offset government subsidies. A final decision on duty rates is expected by August.
SOFTWARE
Infosys profit rises 27%
Indian software exporter Infosys yesterday said its quarterly profit rose 27 percent, but its shares tumbled on a lower than expected growth forecast. The NASDAQ-listed firm said clients were cautious in an uncertain global economic environment as it announced a consolidated net profit of 23.16 billion rupees (US$454 million) in the three months to last month. Profit was 18.2 billion rupees in the year earlier period. Infosys forecast its full-year dollar-based revenue for the new fiscal year which started April 1, at US$7.55 billion to US$7.69 billion, an 8 to 10 percent rise.
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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