INDIA
Inflation hits unexpected high
Inflation unexpectedly accelerated to a seven-month high last month, adding to the case for a further increase in the benchmark interest rate. The wholesale price index rose 6.46 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 6.1 percent advance in August, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who took over the central bank last month, raised the repurchase rate to 7.5 percent after vowing to tame inflation.
Japan
Reserves to be outsourced
The government plans to let private-sector financial institutions manage part of its US$1.27 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, a finance ministry official said yesterday. The government will introduce a bill to a Diet session beginning this week that would lift a ban on outsourcing the management of the reserves, said the official, who asked not to be named. The country will continue to buy US Treasuries and other assets that are perceived to be safe, retaining its investment stance, the official said.
MINING
Diamonds fetch record prices
The annual sale of Rio Tinto’s rare pink-hued diamonds attracted unprecedented interest with at least two of the stones fetching record prices of more than US$2 million, the mining giant said yesterday. This year’s Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender of 64 red, pink and blue stones drew a record number of bids of more than US$1 million from established markets such as Japan and Australia, as well as emerging markets China and India. The highlight was the Argyle Phoenix, a 1.56 carat gem and one of three Fancy Red diamonds on offer, which sold for more than US$2 million to a Singapore-based jeweler, the highest per-carat price paid for any diamond ever produced from Rio’s Argyle mine in Western Australia.
EUROZONE
Ministers in bank talks
EU finance ministers will try again this week to resolve deep differences over how to supervise, and if necessary close, failing banks before they can plunge the economy into crisis. Ireland was among the worst affected by the collapse of its banks, but over the weekend announced it would exit its three-year, 85 billion euro (US$115.3 billion) bailout program on schedule in December. The 17 eurozone ministers were to meet yesterday in Luxembourg, followed by talks today with their 11 non-euro colleagues hoping for progress on a hugely complex issue surrounded by political sensitivities.
FURNITURE
Ikea sales rise 3.1%
Ikea Group said full-year sales rose 3.1 percent as the flat-pack furniture retailer gained market share in most markets and benefited from growth in Russia and China. Revenue increased to 27.9 billion euros (US$37.9 billion), the company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Same-store sales gained 1.8 percent at the retailer. Ikea said some of the strongest growth was in Russia and China, and that North America showed significant progress.
AEROSPACE
Airbus A350 XWB ‘on track’
European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co chief executive Tom Enders yesterday said the firm’s aircraft unit, Airbus, is on track to deliver the first A350 XWB by the end of next year. The wide-bodied aircraft is the latest passenger jet from the Toulouse-based manufacturer. The new airliner is set to compete with Boeing’s troubled 787 Dreamliner.
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