AUSTRALIA
Surplus possible: minister
The budget should return to surplus in 2014 even as a drop in tax revenue forced the government to give up a pledge to balance its books in the current fiscal year, Trade Minister Craig Emerson said. The original target of a surplus in the fiscal year ending June next year could be achieved if positive signs around household spending continue through the rest of the year, Emerson said in an interview on Sky News television yesterday. Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Thursday the government was unlikely to have a surplus because of a fall in tax revenues. “There are good things going on in the economy,” Emerson said, citing prospects of improving performance for car sales, the housing market and the retail industry.
EUROZONE
EC to propose deficit delays
The European Commission could propose giving Spain, France and several other eurozone states more time to cut their public deficits below the target limit of 3 percent of GDP, El Pais said on Saturday.Citing senior Spanish and EU sources, the Madrid-based daily said France could get an extra year, allowing it to narrow its fiscal gap by 2014, while Spain would be given one or two more years beyond that date. France said on Saturday that it would maintain its deficit-reduction goal for next year regardless of any softer line from Brussels.
FAST FOOD
Burger King returns
For the first time in 15 years, Burger King Corp served its flame-grilled Whoppers in France, a country better known for its gastronomy than fast food. Burger King Worldwide opened a restaurant at Marseille airport on Saturday, returning to France thanks to an agreement with Autogrill, which operates restaurants at highway service stations. The burger chain, the world’s second-biggest behind McDonald’s Corp, closed its 39 French restaurants in 1997, because they were not profitable. Burger King says their next restaurant is planned at a highway service station in Champagne in the first half of next year.
GREECE
Swiss accounts to be probed
Prosecutors will investigate 2,000 holders of HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland for suspected tax evasion, state broadcaster Net said on Saturday. The Finance Ministry said on Friday that it had received the list, which was already leaked in 2010 by an HSBC employee and passed on to Greece by France’s then-finance minister Christine Lagarde, the current head of the IMF. Authorities had claimed that the list was illegally obtained and hence could not be used in the battle against tax evasion. However, mounting anger against a new round of austerity cuts, imposed by the nation’s international creditors, put pressure on the government to seek the list.
SWEDEN
Growth forecasts slashed
The government slashed its economic growth forecasts late last week, becoming the third Nordic country to do so in a move that highlights the troubled eurozone’s impact on its trading partners. The government cut its GDP projection for next year to 1.1 percent, compared with a 2.7 percent estimate in September. This year it sees the economy growing by just 0.9 percent, compared with an earlier forecast of 1.6 percent. The center-right government, which has been in power since 2006, said it now believes unemployment will rise next year to 8.2 percent from an average rate of 7.7 percent this year.
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