SINGAPORE
Bank to maintain policy
The central bank unexpectedly announced it will leave monetary policy unchanged, seeking to curb consumer price gains even after the economy shrank an annualized 1.5 percent in the last quarter. “This policy stance is assessed to be appropriate in containing inflationary pressures and keeping the economy on a path of restructuring towards sustainable growth,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore said yesterday in a statement following its semi-annual exchange-rate review. There is to be no change to the slope and width of the local currency’s trading band that the MAS uses as its main policy tool, the bank said.
CHINA
Yuan at balance rate: bank
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) governor says the Chinese currency has reached its equilibrium rate and its value is mainly determined by the market, rather than intervention. In a speech delivered by one of his deputies, Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川), said yesterday that the central bank has refrained from intervening in the market in the past year. The US has long urged China to lift controls on foreign exchange markets that Washington contends keep the yuan undervalued. PBOC Vice Governor Yi Gang (易綱), who delivered the speech, said China knows that a fixed exchange rate is unsustainable and will continue with reforms.
ASIA
Treasurer urges expansion
The global economy is relying too heavily on Asia to make up for stagnant growth in the US and Europe, said Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan, who urged international policy makers to do more to bolster expansion. “It is time for the other players to get off the benches and start to pull their weight on global economic growth again,” Swan said in remarks to the International Monetary and Financial Committee in Tokyo on Saturday, according to a transcript from his office. “Cutting fiscal positions on a sustainable footing needs to be done hand in hand with supporting growth — this does not need to be one or the other,” he said.
WORLD BANK
Bank to open office in SK
The World Bank plans to open an office in South Korea, according to an e-mailed statement from the Asian nation’s finance ministry. Jim Yong-kim, president of the World Bank, and South Korean Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan are to sign a memorandum of understanding today to establish the office, according to the statement. The agreement also includes creating a new cooperation fund between the two partners, the finance ministry said in the statement. It did not specify when the office will open.
GERMANY
Minister warns on Greece
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said yesterday that Greece would not default, but warned that if Athens did exit the eurozone it would be damaging not only for the zone as a whole, but also Greece. “I think, it will not happen that there will be a state bankrupt in Greece,” Schaeuble said at a meeting with business leaders in Singapore. “Greece has to take a lot of very serious reforms and this will harm. Everyone is trusting that the Greek government is doing what is necessary.” Greece is expected to agree a new austerity package with its lenders and for the EU and IMF to bridge their differences on how to cut the country’s debt by the time EU leaders meet on Thursday and Friday.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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