The IMF yesterday maintained its growth target for China at above 8 percent for this year and next, despite a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
“In China, even with the drag from external demand, growth is projected to be above 8 percent in 2012 and 2013 because consumption and investment are expected to remain robust,” the fund said in its global economic forecast.
It said the economy was expected to grow 8.2 percent this year — above the Chinese government’s target of 7.5 percent — and 8.8 percent next year, echoing predictions made in January.
However the IMF warned that the nation’s slowing real-estate sector and a weak export market would continue to pressure growth.
“These appear manageable on their own, but a large external shock could bring these risks to the fore, precipitating a decline in investment and activity in China that would have implications for its trading partners,” it said, adding that monetary easing would remain limited as China is “still working through its previous credit expansion.”
The IMF said Japan’s disaster-hit economy would expand 2 percent this year, higher than its earlier 1.7 percent projection, amid a surge in reconstruction spending, but it could be tempered by energy shortages and Europe’s debt woes.
However, growth is expected to be “subdued” at 1.75 percent next year, “reflecting the weak global environment and a decline in reconstruction spending,” it said.
The eurozone recession this year would be milder than forecast, the IMF said, raising its outlook for a recovery next year, but warning of new risks, notably over Spain.
The IMF said that the recession would slice 0.3 percent from eurozone output this year, instead of the 0.5 percent forecast in January, and that growth would be 0.9 percent next year, up from 0.8 percent.
That makes a rebound of 1.2 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the IMF issued a clarion call to bickering US politicians yesterday, urging them to solve the country’s debt problems before a still-vulnerable economy is tipped over the brink.
The IMF raised US growth projections for this year to 2.1 percent, which was up 0.3 percentage points from a January estimate.
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