SOUTH KOREA
Inflation rate slows
The inflation rate slowed to a fourth-month low last month, as the consumer price index rose 1.4 percent from 2011, dragged down by falling prices of key items including pork, childcare facilities, medicine and televisions, government data showed yesterday. The figure for last month — the lowest since August when it rose 1.2 percent — was well within the central bank’s target inflation rate of 2 percent to 4 percent. From November, inflation was up 0.2 percent last month, according to state-run Statistics Korea. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, rose 1.2 percent from 2011, compared to a 1.3 percent rise posted last month, and was up 0.2 percent month-on-month.
SOUTH KOREA
Parliament to pass budget
Parliament was expected to pass next year’s government budget yesterday after slightly expanding welfare spending programs in line with president-elect Park Geun-hye’s campaign pledges. Media cited officials at the ruling and main opposition parties yesterday as saying they now aimed to put their agreed version up for vote after winding up debate on minor issues at sub-committee meetings. The value of this year’s budget bill is expected to rise to about 342.7 trillion won (US$320.11 billion) from 342.5 trillion won, but there would be no big change in funding plans, media reports said. The government’s plan is to narrow the official fiscal deficit to 0.3 percent of GDP this year from a projected 1.1 percent deficit last year.
ENERGY
Firms win Bolivia gas bid
British Gas and Brazilian energy company Petrobras have won bids to explore for natural gas in Bolivia. Bolivia nationalized its energy industry in 2006, but has also been seeking more foreign investment to help tap its vast reserves. Bolivia’s state energy company YPFB announced in a statement on its Web site on Sunday that the British and Brazilian companies had been awarded areas to explore for gas. It said their investments would help boost exploration efforts in Bolivia, but it did not give details about the planned investments or the terms.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford hopes to sell 2.2m cars
Ford says it expects to sell 2.2 million vehicles this year, with the Ford Focus compact car being its most popular model. The Dearborn, Michigan, company says it is the second year in a row it will sell more than 2 million cars. It sold 737,856 Ford Focuses through September. The Ford Fiesta sedan and hatchback and F-series trucks were other popular models, with Ford selling 560,061 Fiestas and 576,339 F-Series vehicles through September.
EGYPT
Currency devaluates
The Egyptian pound fell to a record low against the US dollar on Sunday as the central bank stepped into the market to try to stabilize trading and stop an anxious public that has been buying up dollars for fear of an even bigger dive in the local currency, bankers said. The pound slid more than 3 percent on the first trading day after the central bank introduced a new dollar auction system that bankers said appeared designed to allow a “controlled devaluation” of the Egyptian pound. Under the new auction system, the central bank sold all US$75 million on offer to banks on Sunday.
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],”