AUSTRALIA
Inflation falls below target
National inflation in the quarter from January to last month came in lower than forecast, data showed yesterday, underscoring softness in the economy and spurring talk of an interest rate cut. The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 2.5 percent annually, the Bureau of Statistics said. Analysts had predicted 0.7 percent and 2.8 percent respectively. While the figures are up from the 0.5 percent and 2.2 percent seen in the previous three months, it is the second straight quarter that inflation has come short of expectations.
VIETNAM
Inflation at seven-month low
The country’s inflation slowed to its weakest pace in seven months this month, official data showed yesterday, in the latest sign that the economy is losing steam. Consumer prices rose 6.61 percent year-on-year this month, the Government Statistics Office said, slightly less than the 6.64 percent increase reported last month. In the first quarter of the year, GDP grew by 4.89 percent from a year earlier, with authorities warning of an “extremely challenging” outlook.
GERMANY
Business confidence falls
The nation’s business confidence fell more sharply than expected this month, data showed yesterday, as businesses in Europe’s top economy become increasingly cautious in face of weak economic data. The Ifo Institute’s closely watched business climate index fell to 104.4 points this month from 106.7 points last month. Analysts had been expecting only a very slight decrease this month to 106.2 points. The sub-index measuring current business slipped fractionally to 107.2 points this month — its lowest level in four months — from 109.9 points last month, while the outlook sub-index fell by 2 points to 101.6 points.
ELECTRONICS
Ninendo predicts profit rise
Japanese video game giant Nintendo Co yesterday forecast an eight-fold jump in net profit for the current fiscal year after saying it had returned to the black, helped by a weaker yen. The Kyoto-based firm said it expected to earn ¥55 billion (US$553 million) in the year to last month after reporting a ¥7.10 billion net profit in its latest business year. The first-quarter figure was only about half of the ¥14 billion it forecast in January.
ELECTRONICS
TV business hurts LG profit
LG Electronics Inc yesterday said its first-quarter earnings shrank to a 10th of that posted a year earlier as its television business languished. The South Korean electronics giant said its net profit for the quarter fell to 22.1 billion won (US$19.7 million) from 247.5 billion won a year earlier. Sales rose 7 percent to 14.1 trillion won, while operating profit slipped 13 percent to 349.5 billion won. LG blamed the decline on lower profit from its TV business, which offset an improvement in its mobile phone business.
ELECTRONICS
Ericsson’s Q1 earnings fall
Wireless equipment maker Ericsson yesterday said its first-quarter earnings dropped 86 percent to 1.2 billion Swedish kronor (US$180 million) compared with the same period last year after restructuring charges connected with the downsizing of its Sweden-based operations. The company said sales over the past three months rose 2 percent year-on-year to 52 billion kronor, with North America showing the strongest growth at 23 percent.
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