TRADE
China objects to report
China yesterday said it opposes the release of a WTO report about its export curbs on rare earths following news accounts that the document rejects Beijing’s policy as a trade violation. The report by WTO experts is not a final ruling and leaks would violate the trade body’s rules, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. It gave no details of the report. Japan’s Jiji Press news agency and the Financial Times, citing unidentified officials, have said the report sides with the US, the EU and Japan after they said export curbs improperly favor Chinese domestic manufacturers in violation of Beijing’s free-trade commitments.
SOUTH KOREA
Exports up, inflation down
South Korea’s exports jumped 7.3 percent last month, turning around a decline the month before, while inflation dropped to a 14-year low, government data showed yesterday. Exports, which account for about 50 percent of GDP in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, swelled to US$50.5 billion, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier, Statistics Korea reported. Imports were up 5.1 percent at US$45.6 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$4.9 billion. Meanwhile, inflation dipped again last month, with the consumer price index rising just 0.7 percent from a year ago — the lowest level since July 1999.
INDONESIA
Nation posts trade deficit
Indonesia’s trade balance unexpectedly swung back to a deficit in September, official data showed yesterday, in a setback for Southeast Asia’s beleaguered top economy after recently showing signs of a recovery. The news of the US$657.2 million deficit followed a small surplus in August and a string of other positive indicators, including easing inflation and an uptick in the manufacturing sector. Inflation slowed slightly from 8.4 percent year-on-year in September to 8.32 percent last month, official data showed.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan cuts profit target
Nissan Motor Co, Japan’s second-biggest automaker, cut its earnings forecast to reflect tougher-than-expected conditions in many markets and expensive recalls. Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a video statement released yesterday that the recalls and slowdowns in key emerging markets such as Russia and Indonesia took a toll. The company posted a 6.8 percent increase in July-September net profit to ¥189.8 billion (US$1.9 billion) from ¥177.7 billion a year earlier.
RETAIL
McDonald’s says sorry
McDonald’s Japan issued an apology yesterday after it was revealed one of its outlets had posted a notice banning homeless people for more than a year. The notice, which had triggered an online debate, said staff at the west Tokyo branch “would refuse entry to people deemed improper,” citing poor hygiene and homelessness as examples. The global fast-food giant said yesterday that the sign had been replaced.
BANKING
China to invest in Brazil
A Chinese bank has agreed to buy 72 percent of a Brazilian midsized commercial lender for US$725 million, expanding the Latin American foothold of China’s state-owned banking industry. China Construction Bank (中國建設銀行) and Banco Industrial e Commercial SA yesterday said the Chinese institution would acquire a controlling stake from Brazil’s family-owned Bezerra de Menezes Financial Group.
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