JAPAN
Chronic deflation persists
Authorities report that the nation’s chronic deflation persisted in January, with consumer prices falling 0.2 percent from a year earlier, though the employment situation showed a modest improvement. Among other mixed signals, the government reported that non-financial corporate investment dropped 8.7 percent in the final quarter of last year from a year earlier, the first such decline in five quarters, as weak exports cast a pall on business sentiment. The government also said unemployment declined to 4.2 percent in January from 4.3 percent in December last year.
SOUTH KOREA
Trade balance shows surplus
Exports and imports fell last month from a year earlier, but the trade balance showed a surplus for the 13th straight month, government data showed yesterday. Exports totalled US$42.33 billion, down 8.6 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. Imports slipped 10.7 percent on-year to US$40.27 billion, leaving a US$2.06 billion surplus.
INDONESIA
Inflation hits 20-month high
Inflation last month hit a 20-month high after government measures to limit commodity imports pushed up consumer prices, an official said yesterday. Inflation rose 5.31 percent year-on-year, edging closer to the target range cap of 5.5 percent, while month-on-month inflation was 0.75 percent, slower than the four-year high recorded in January of 1.03 percent. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food prices, slowed to 4.29 percent from 4.32 percent in January.
GERMANY
Retail sales increase
Retail sales showed an unexpectedly strong increase in January, wiping out the decline seen the previous month, official data showed yesterday. Retail sales rose by 3.1 percent in January compared with December in price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms, according to provisional figures by the federal statistics office Destatis. On a 12-month basis, retail sales were up by 2.4 percent in January.
COSMETICS
Firm to adhere to testing ban
Japan’s Shiseido yesterday said it was mostly dropping animal-tested cosmetics, as the EU gets set to finalize a sweeping ban on the sale of such products later this month. However, the company said exceptions to the policy meant it would still allow animal testing when that was the only way of proving the safety of products already being sold in the market, and in some countries where animal testing is legally required.
ADVERTISING
WPP posts annual growth
WPP, the world’s largest advertising company, recovered from third quarter weakness to post annual growth of 2.9 percent in organic revenue, ahead of expectations. WPP, whose portfolio includes Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam, works for clients including Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Shell, said headline operating margins rose 0.5 points to 14.8 percent, in line with expectations.
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook agrees to buy Atlas
Facebook agreed on Thursday to buy Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft as part of an effort to boost ad revenues at the massive social network. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Atlas was part of the aQuantive group acquired by Microsoft, which ended up in a writedown and loss for Microsoft last 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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained