ECONOMY
Global GDP to grow 2.4%
Developing countries, led by China, will remain the main engines of global economic growth this year as Europe and the US plod along, the World Bank said in the Global Economic Prospects report released on Tuesday. For this year, the development lender lowered its forecast for global growth to 2.4 percent, from a June estimate of 3 percent, saying the economic recovery remains “fragile and uncertain” despite lower financial risk. The report said high-income countries at the center of the financial crisis were projected to post a tepid GDP growth of 1.3 percent this year, while developing countries would see a more robust 5.5 percent growth. China’s economy was expected to expand 8.4 percent this year and Brazil would expand 3.4 percent, it said.
ECONOMY
German GDP rises 0.7%
Germany’s economy has fallen victim to economic problems hitting the rest of the eurozone and shrank in the fourth quarter of last year, preliminary government figures show. According to government figures released on Tuesday, the German economy grew by a modest 0.7 percent last year — well below the 3 percent growth seen in 2011 and suggests the economy contracted in the last three months of the year. The German government said that shrinkage could be about 0.5 percent.
AVIATION
Japan carriers ground 787s
Japan’s two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s yesterday after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing, the latest and most serious in a series of incidents to heighten safety concerns over a plane many see as the future of commercial aviation. All Nippon Airways Co (ANA) said instruments aboard a domestic flight indicated a battery error, triggering emergency warnings to the pilots. It said the battery in the forward cargo hold was the same lithium-ion type as one involved in a fire on another Dreamliner at a US airport last week. The carrier grounded all 17 of its 787s, and Japan Airlines Co suspended its 787 flights scheduled for yesterday. ANA said its planes could be back in the air as soon as today once checks were completed. The two carriers operate about half of the 50 Dreamliners delivered by Boeing to date.
CONGLOMERATES
F&N auction mulled
Singapore’s stock market watchdog has called for an auction to resolve a protracted takeover battle between Indonesian and Thai tycoons for local conglomerate Fraser and Neave (F&N). The Securities Industry Council (SIC) said in a statement issued late on Tuesday that investors needed certainty and gave both contenders until Sunday to make fresh offers for F&N, a beverage, property and publishing group. If a stalemate remains, a daily bidding process will start on Monday until one party gives up.
RETAIL
Wal-Mart ups local sourcing
Wal-Mart Store, the world’s biggest retailer, said on Tuesday it would spend US$50 billion more on US-made goods and boost hiring of military service veterans to support the nation’s economy. Wal-Mart Store’s retail chains in the US — Walmart and members-only Sam’s Club — will buy an additional US$50 billion worth of domestic products over the next 10 years, the company said. Wal-Mart said that two thirds of its spending on products for Walmart US already goes to US products.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
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
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li