CURRENCIES
China ‘prepared’ for ‘war’
A top Chinese banker said Beijing is “fully prepared” for a currency war, as he urged the world to abide by a consensus reached by the G20 to avert confrontation, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Yi Gang (易鋼) issued the call after G20 finance ministers last month moved to calm fears of a looming war on the currency markets at a meeting in Moscow. Those fears have largely been fueled by the recent steep decline in the Japanese yen, which critics have accused Tokyo of manipulating to give its manufacturers a competitive edge in key export markets over Asian rivals. Yi said a currency war could be avoided if major countries observed the G20 consensus that monetary policy should primarily serve as a tool for domestic economy, Xinhua reported.
INTERNET
Yahoo cuts slow products
Yahoo Inc is shutting down seven products, including its mobile app for BlackBerry smartphones, as new CEO Marissa Mayer takes a page from Google Inc’s play book by eliminating unsuccessful products en masse. The product shutdowns, which Yahoo announced on its official company blog on Friday, are part of what the company said are regular efforts to evaluate and review its product line-up. The announcement represents Yahoo’s second group shutdown of products since Mayer, a former Google executive, became CEO of the struggling Web portal in July last year. The other products to be terminated are Yahoo Avatars, App Search, Sports IQ, Clues, Message Boards Web site and Updates API.
MANUFACTURING
US manufacturing expands
US manufacturing expanded at a faster pace than forecast last month, reaching the highest level since June 2011 as factories boosted production. The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) factory index advanced to 54.2, from 53.1 in January, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said on Friday. The figures exceeded the most optimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey in which the median projection was 52.5. A reading greater than 50 signals expansion. The production gains complement a rebound in the housing market and help underpin the economy amid budget disputes in Washington. Estimates from the 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg ranged from 50.5 to 54. The gauge averaged 51.7 last year and 55.2 in 2011. The ISM report also showed a measure of US production increased to 57.6 from 53.6 in January. The new orders measure climbed to 57.8, the highest since April 2011, from 53.3.
CRIME
Ernst & Young fined for fraud
Ernst & Young LLP will pay US$123 million to resolve a US tax-fraud probe as part of a non-prosecution agreement, according to a statement by the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office on Friday. The accounting firm “admitted wrongful conduct” by its partners and employees in connection with four tax shelters from 1999 to 2004, it said. About 200 Ernst & Young clients used the shelters to try to avoid more than US$2 billion in taxes, prosecutors said. In addition to the money and the admissions, Ernst & Young agreed to a series of permanent restrictions on its tax practice and would continue to cooperate with the government’s tax-shelter investigation.
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],”
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
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