FRANCE
Weather cools consumption
Consumers tightened their purse strings again in June after a bounce in consumption in May, with both moves largely due to weather conditions and highlighting the fragility of any nascent recovery. French consumer spending fell 0.8 percent in June from May, largely because of reduced energy spending as the weather got better after a cold May that had sent heating bills up. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a slight rise in June. Overall, consumer spending edged up 0.3 percent in the second quarter, data from statistics office INSEE showed.
BANKING
EU crisis bites BNP profits
BNP Paribas yesterday said its net profit slipped nearly 5 percent in the second quarter as investment banking continued to suffer from the tough economic conditions in Europe. France’s largest bank made a net profit of 1.76 billion euros (US$2.3 billion) in the April-to-June quarter, down from 1.85 billion euros a year earlier. Paris-based BNP said that its corporate and investment banking revenue fell 2.4 percent from a year earlier, which contributed to a 38.7 percent earnings slide in the quarter. BNP Paribas said there were “renewed tensions in the markets,” stemming mostly from confusion over when the US Federal Reserve will start reducing its stimulus.
ELECTRONICS
Panasonic octuples profits
Japanese consumer electronics giant Panasonic Corp said its net profit surged more than eightfold last quarter, helped by the weaker yen and strength in the company’s automotive and housing-related businesses. The ¥107.8 billion (US$1.1 billion) profit in the April-to-June period compared with a ¥12.8 billion net profit in the same period a year earlier, representing an increase of 842 percent. The Osaka-based company is battling plunging prices and weak sales of its mainstay electronics products. It says it is making progress in trimming its unprofitable businesses. Sales rose 1 percent to ¥1.82 trillion as an 8 percent rise in overseas sales helped offset a 6 percent fall in domestic revenue.
FRANCE
EADS to shake up Airbus
The parent company of European jet maker Airbus SAS yesterday said its profit soared 31 percent in the first half to 759 million euros (US$1 billion) and announced a corporate shakeup to give prominence to its civil aviation division. European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co (EADS) is changing its name to Airbus Group next year and reshuffling its space and military units into one division, the company said. The changes will “enhance integration and cohesion” of the group, it added.
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