RUSSIA
Growth forecast downgraded
Russia’s economy minister warned yesterday that officials will probably have to downgrade this year’s growth forecast for the second time in months because of a poor first-half performance. The Federal State Statistics Service reported on Aug. 9 that Russia’s economy expanded by just 1.4 percent of gross domestic product compared to the first six months of last year. The result fell far short of President Vladimir Putin’s promise of 5 percent growth for the year and the government’s own downwardly revised forecast of 2.4 percent.
MEXICO
Growth down 3.1 percent
The Mexican government has lowered its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year to 1.8 percent. That is down from the 3.1 percent gain it predicted earlier this year. The National Statistics Institute says the country’s GDP expanded only 1.5 percent in the second quarter of the year, compared with the same quarter of last year. Compared to the first quarter, GDP actually contracted 0.74 percent in the April-June period. Growth for the first half of this year averaged 1 percent, due to weakness in the mining and construction sectors.
SPAIN
Bank to lay off 2,500 staff
Nationalized Spanish lender Catalunya Banc plans to lay off nearly 2,500 workers under a eurozone bailout deal for Spain’s banks, a union source said on Tuesday. A union representative in the company said the bank had drawn up a restructuring plan under which 2,453 of its 7,200 workers will be laid off and 450 of its 1,200 branches shut down. Catalunya Banc was formed in 2010 from the fusion of three savings banks in the Catalonia region.
ALCOHOL
Heineken earnings fall 17%
Heineken NV says first-half earnings fell 17 percent because of bad weather, weak “consumer sentiment” in Europe and the US, and slowing growth in developing countries. Net profit at the world’s third-largest brewer was 639 million euros (US$858 million), from 766 million euros a year ago. Revenues rose 3 percent to 10.4 billion euros, but that was due to Heineken’s takeover of Asian Pacific Breweries, the maker of Tiger beer. Chief executive Jean Francois van Boxmeer said yesterday the outlook for the second half is similar. The company plans to keep cutting costs.
TELECOMS
China Telecom profits grew
State-owned China Telecom (中國電信) says profits grew in the first half of the year as revenue from iPhone sales kicked in. China’s third-biggest mobile operator by subscribers said yesterday that profit rose 16 percent to 10.2 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) in the January-June period. Revenue rose 14 percent to 157.5 billion yuan. The company is the second Chinese phone company to offer Apple’s popular iPhone.
RETAIL
Barnes & Noble posts loss
US bookseller Barnes & Noble on Tuesday reported a net loss of US$87 million in the quarter to July 27, while its founder announced the withdrawal of an offer to buy the retail arm of the struggling company. Revenues fell both in the retail book division and the Nook digital unit, which produces tablet computers and e-readers. In its quarterly earnings statement, the firm said chairman Leonard Riggio advised the board of directors that he has “suspended his efforts to make an offer for the company’s retail business.”
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained