GERMANY
Inflation rate rises
The rate of inflation in Europe’s biggest economy continued to climb last month to reach the highest level seen this year, final data showed yesterday. The cost of living rose 1.9 percent last month on a 12-month basis, up from 1.8 percent in June, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. The pick-up in the rate of inflation was driven primarily by rising food prices, Destatis said. Using the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), the European Central Bank’s inflation yardstick, the rate of inflation was also measured at 1.9 percent last month.
CHINA
Service fees to be cut
Authorities will reduce service fees charged by 14 government departments, the country’s top economic planning agency said yesterday, as part of Beijing’s efforts to cut red tape and promote reforms. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said charges would be cut for 20 services, effective on Oct. 1. The moves should save companies and individuals about 200 million yuan (US$32.7 million) a year, the NDRC estimated in a statement issued jointly with the Ministry of Finance.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple prepares for launches
Apple Inc is preparing for a busy close to the year with the debut of new iPhone and iPad models, seeking to retain its position in the increasingly crowded smartphone and tablet markets. After having minimal product introductions since last year, Apple will unveil a new iPhone at a Sept. 10 event, a person familiar with the plans said. New iPad models, including an iPad with a thinner body design and an iPad Mini with a high-resolution screen will be unveiled later, two people said.
CATERING
Domino’s expanding in Asia
Australia’s Domino’s Pizza Enterprises yesterday said it is expanding into Asia, taking a 75 percent stake in the fast-food brand’s Japanese business for ¥12 billion (US$123.4 million). The Brisbane-based company will acquire the interest in Domino’s Pizza Japan, which has that country’s third-largest pizza delivery chain, by partnering with current owner Bain Capital Domino Hong Kong. The purchase, which will be funded via a combination of debt and equity financing, is expected to be completed before the end of next month.
CATERING
Yum sales drop in China
KFC parent Yum Brands Inc says a key sales figure for its China unit fell 13 percent last month, which is slightly worse than the drop the previous month. The company, based in Louisville, Kentucky, had reported a 10 percent drop in June as it worked to recover from the double whammy of a supplier controversy over its chickens and a bird flu scare. That had suggested a recovery, given the 19 percent drop in May. Yum says it still expects sales at established restaurants to continue recovering over the course of the year and to turn positive in the fourth quarter. The company is the biggest Western fast-food operator in China.
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook to purchase MT
Facebook has agreed to acquire Mobile Technologies, a firm specializing in voice translation software, the two companies said on Monday, without providing financial details of the transaction. Founded in 2001, Mobile Technologies is best known for developing the Jibbigo mobile application for speech-to-speech language translation.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts