The Bank of Japan will continue easing monetary conditions as it tries to pull the country out of a deflationary slump, the bank’s chief said yesterday.
In comments to branch managers of the central bank, Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said that risks from the European debt crisis and continued tensions with China over a territorial dispute were inhibiting investment by Japanese manufacturers and other businesses.
The Japanese yen has slipped against the US dollar and euro recently, in a slide that began in anticipation that Shinzo Abe, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, would become Japanese prime minister. Abe has been lobbying the central bank for aggressive action for months, demanding that it meet an inflation target of about 2 percent, despite the bank’s ostensibly independent status.
So far prices remain flat, Shirakawa said, indicating scant progress toward escaping deflation.
In announcing a ¥20 trillion (US$225 billion) economic stimulus package on Friday, Abe reiterated his calls for the central bank to do more to boost growth.
“The Bank of Japan recognizes it is crucial for the economy to overcome deflation as soon as possible and resume a sustainable growth path with price stability,” Shirakawa said, according to a copy of his remarks on the bank’s Web site.
The yen’s fall to its lowest level since April 2011 has helped relieve pressure on manufacturers whose competitiveness and profitability have suffered due in part to the currency’s prolonged appreciation.
However, many businesses have expressed concern that the yen could fall too far, adding to uncertainties and raising costs for imported fuel and other commodities.
The yen rebounded yesterday after Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari said the local currency’s sharp decline could hit consumers by making imported goods more expensive as the economy stumbles.
“Obviously, an excessively weak yen will be reflected in import prices,” Amari told a regular Tokyo press briefing.
“It might help exports, but it could also have negative effects on the lives of the public,” he said.
The US dollar — which changed hands at ¥89.56 in morning trade — dropped to ¥88.74, while the euro was lower at ¥118.47 in late afternoon Tokyo trade, from ¥119.93 yesterday morning.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six