INDONESIA
Key interest rate raised
The government hiked the nation’s key interest rate to 6 percent yesterday, the first change in more than a year as it seeks to boost confidence in the rupiah and head off an expected rise in inflation. On Tuesday, Bank Indonesia announced it would hike the rate it pays lenders for overnight deposits, known as the Fasbi, by 25 basis point to 4.25 percent.
AUSTRALIA
Unemployment rate eases
The unemployment rate eased to 5.5 percent last month, an unexpected fall that could see the central bank hold off on cutting interest rates next month. However, the amount of people employed rose by 1,100, the Bureau of Statistics said, compared with an expected fall of 10,000.
BANKING
RBS chief to step down
Bailed-out UK lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said on Wednesday that Stephen Hester will step down as chief executive later this year — a move that creates some uncertainty as the bank prepares to return to the private sector. The board of the bank, which is 81 percent owned by the taxpayer after it was rescued by the UK government in 2008, said Hester was unable to make an open-ended commitment to lead the bank back into the private sector after having already served five years.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Firm denies bribe claims
Drug manufacturer Glaxo-SmithKline yesterday said it has investigated an accusation that its salespeople in China bribed doctors and found no evidence of wrongdoing. The company said it conducted a four-month investigation after receiving complaints from an anonymous source. The Wall Street Journal, citing company documents, reported the complaint said GlaxoSmithKline staff in China provided doctors with speaking fees, cash payments, lavish dinners and travel in return for prescribing its products.
INTERNET
Yahoo to release accounts
Yahoo is trying to breathe new life into inactive e-mail accounts by giving away the identifications beginning next month. The program announced on Wednesday will give Web surfers an opportunity to claim a new handle that had previously been unavailable. It also represents a last chance for Yahoo users who have not logged in for at least a year to keep the address. Yahoo Inc plans to release the inactive accounts unless the current owner logs in again before July 15.
CYBERCRIME
Eight charged for theft
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey on Wednesday unveiled criminal charges against eight people accused of trying to steal at least US$15 million from US customers in an international cybercrime scheme targeting accounts at 15 financial institutions and government agencies. Among the entities targeted were Automatic Data Processing Inc, eBay Inc’s PayPal, JPMorgan Chase & Co and the US Department of Defense, prosecutors said.
BROADBAND
Clearwire mulls takeover bid
US broadband firm Clearwire urged its shareholders on Wednesday to accept a takeover offer from satellite communications giant Dish Network over another from wireless carrier Sprint. Clearwire is at the heart of a battle for a chunk in the lucrative US wireless market pitting Dish against Japan’s Softbank to take over Sprint Nextel.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by