SPAIN
Debt rises to 72.1% of GDP
Spain’s public debt rose to 72.1 percent of GDP in the first quarter of the year, from 63.6 percent in the same period a year earlier, the Bank of Spain said yesterday. The government expects the public debt to reach 79.8 percent of GDP by the end of the year, a figure that does not include the impact of a eurozone loan of up to 100 billion euros (US$126 billion) to ailing Spanish banks. Ratings agency Moody’s warned on Wednesday that the loan “will materially worsen the government’s debt position,” and projected Spain’s public deficit would hit 90 percent of GDP this year and continue rising through 2015.
RETAIL
Carrefour to sell Greek stake
France’s Carrefour, one of the world’s top retailers, yesterday said it would cede its share of a joint Greek network to deal with “challenges posed by the Greek economic context.” Carrefour said it would sell its interest in Carrefour Marinopoulos to Greek partner Marinopoulos, but that the entity would remain an exclusive franchise for the French company in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Albania and other Balkan countries. The decision was aimed at “dealing with challenges posed by the Greek economic context,” a statement said. Carrefour plans to take a financial charge of about 220 million euros in connection with the move, it added.
INSURANCE
AIG repays NY Fed loans
Beleaguered insurance giant American International Group (AIG) has repaid all of its bailout loans from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The insurer repaid a total of US$53.12 billion in loans, with interest, the New York Fed said on Thursday. The government stepped in with a US$182.5 billion package to rescue New York-based AIG from collapse in the depths of the financial crisis in 2008. It was the largest bailout in history. The US Department of Treasury provided US$68 billion under its financial bailout program, and the New York Fed gave AIG a US$114 billion lifeline, part of it in loans. The repayment of loans by AIG represents a turnaround for an insurance company that many had given up for dead during and even after the financial crisis. The insurance company has slimmed down its operations, closed down many of its loss-making divisions and has been profitable for two years. The Treasury still owns about 60 percent of AIG’s common stock and has been selling its shares in chunks. It has recovered US$18 billion of the US$68 billion it gave AIG.
AUSTRALIA
Carbon tax’s effect limited
Australia will levy a controversial carbon tax on about half the number of companies originally expected, a government list released yesterday shows, which may limit the economic and political impact of the tax which starts on July 1. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pinned her government’s survival on implementing the carbon price, while hoping for a muted voter reaction to blunt a persistent opposition attack warning of higher prices, job losses and factory closures. The nation’s Clean Energy Regulator has named 294 firms that will be liable for the A$23 per tonne (US$22.96 per tonne) carbon tax, with electricity generators, steelmakers and mining companies among the biggest emitters. The list was based on emissions output. The list is well short of the government’s initial estimate that about 500 firms would be forced to pay to pollute under its sweeping carbon price, designed to cut the nation’s carbon emissions by 5 percent of 2000 levels by 2020.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”