FRANCE
Central bank eyes GDP gain
The Bank of France yesterday forecast a small gain in GDP of 0.1 percent in its first estimate of growth in the first quarter of this year. The forecast is the same as that of the national statistics agency INSEE, which publishes official GDP figures. The government is hoping for 0.8 percent GDP growth this year, but INSEE forecasts the economy is likely to expand by just 0.1 percent in the first half of this year as the eurozone states continue to cut spending to reduce their deficits.
JAPAN
Account surplus shrinks
The nation’s current account surplus last year shrank to its lowest in almost three decades, data showed yesterday, as exports to China and Europe slumped. The Finance Ministry said the current account, the broadest measure of Japan’s trade with the rest of the world, came in at ¥4.7 trillion (US$50 billion) last year, the smallest annual surplus since comparable data was made available in 1985. The news was also poor for December last year, with the country logging a monthly deficit of ¥264.1 billion, reversing a year-earlier surplus of ¥265.7 billion.
SOUTH KOREA
Mutual funds disappoint
The nation’s mutual funds recorded the largest outflows since 2009 last week amid “disappointing” earnings, Citigroup Inc said. The nation’s funds lost 5 percent of assets under management, equal to US$671 million of outflows, in the week ended Wednesday, Markus Rosgen and Yue Hin Pong, Hong Kong-based Citigroup analysts, wrote in a report yesterday, citing EPFR data. Asian funds lured US$981 million, the 22nd straight week of inflows, the analysts wrote. The KOSPI has fallen 2.5 percent this year.
TECHNOLOGY
LinkedIn beats forecasts
LinkedIn Corp, the biggest business-focused social media Web site, reported fourth-quarter sales and profit that beat estimates as marketers bolstered spending on the Web site and the firm added subscribers. Revenue jumped 81 percent to US$303.6 million, the company said in a statement on Thursday, beating an average analysts’ estimate of US$279.7 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit excluding some items was US$0.35 a share, beating the US$0.19 forecast.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan sticking to forecast
Nissan Motor Co said yesterday its net profit in the October-December quarter fell 34.6 percent from a year earlier, but the Japanese automaker kept its full-year profit forecast unchanged. The company said it earned ¥54.1 billion in the period on sales of ¥2.21 trillion, down 5.3 percent year-on-year. It expects to book a net profit of ¥320 billion in the fiscal year to March. Nissan’s global vehicle sales slipped 3.8 percent in the quarter to 1.16 million units, hit by a slumping European market and tough conditions in China.
ADVERTISING
Japan firm eyes Myanmar
Japanese advertising and public relations company Dentsu Inc will open an office in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon next week, in the latest push by a Japanese firm to break into the potentially lucrative new market. The firm, the largest of its kind in Japan, said on Thursday it would work with both foreign and local companies seeking to cash in on new opportunities in the country of 62 million people. Dentsu said it was looking to the 27th Southeast Asian Games, which Myanmar is set to host in December, as a source of advertising contracts.
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],”