SERBIA
Parliament okays budget
The Serbian parliament on Friday approved a revised budget for this year that would bring the nation’s deficit to 4.7 percent of GDP, compared with an initially planned 3.3 percent. “It is still high, but it is the lowest possible,” Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic told the deputies who approved the revised budget with 129 votes for and 55 against. The budget gap is now planned at 178.3 billion dinars (US$2 billion). The deficit will be funded by loans from domestic and international creditors, as well as by the sale of euro-denominated bonds, the government said. A restructuring of public companies, government spending cuts and an improved investment climate will result in 36 billion dinars in savings, he said.
MACROECONOMICS
Brazil inflation at 0.2%
Inflation in Brazil slowed to 0.2 percent last month compared with a month earlier, but at 6.7 percent over 12 months, was still well above the government’s target of 4.5 percent, official figures released on Friday showed. Last month’s figure was the lowest since the same month the year before, when consumer prices rose 0.08 percent, the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute reported. Markets had expected consumer prices to edge up 0.3 percent last month as they did in May. Food products and drinks, which rose the most in previous months, showed increases of only 0.04 percent, unlike transport, which expanded 0.14 percent last month when the country was jolted by mass street protests over public transport fare hikes, inadequate funding of health and education, and endemic political corruption.
TELECOMS
Softbank, Sprint deal passes
US regulators on Friday approved the US$21.6 billion takeover of mobile carrier Sprint by Japan’s Softbank, a deal with the potential to shake up the US wireless market. Approval by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was the last major hurdle following a hard-fought acquisition battle and allows Softbank to take a 78 percent stake in Sprint, while Sprint stockholders will retain a 22 percent stake in the new firm. The FCC also approved a separate deal that allows Sprint to take full control of the wireless broadband provider Clearwire, giving it more spectrum to compete against bigger carriers such as AT&T and Verizon.
AUTOMAKERS
Fiat, Peugeot in new deal
Fiat SpA and PSA Peugeot Citroen agreed to share investment in the development of new delivery vans that will be produced in Italy, four people familiar with the matter said. The two carmakers will split costs to develop a new version of the Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer and Citroen Jumper full-sized vans, which will be built at the SevelSud plant in central Italy, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the agreement has not been made public. Fiat has scheduled an announcement at the plant for Tuesday without providing details. Fiat and Peugeot, which currently already cooperate at SevelSud on assembly of the models, agreed in May 2011 to end a similar partnership to make mid-sized delivery vans in France. Paris-based Peugeot plans to invest more than 750 million euros (US$962 million) to produce a new model on its own to keep the SevelNord plant open.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San