SOUTH KOREA
Exports weaken
The country’s exports were weaker than expected last month as an upswing in developed economies was slow to come, while emerging markets were suffering from financial uncertainties, the trade ministry said yesterday. Exports for the month came to US$42.99 billion, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, while imports were US$42.06 billion, up 4 percent, leaving a US$930 million trade surplus.
CANADA
Economy grew 2% last year
The economy caught a chill at the end of last year, but still managed slightly better than expected growth of 2 percent, the government statistics agency announced on Friday. GDP grew by 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter — or at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent — Statistics Canada said, but output was down 0.5 percentage points in December last year from the previous month. Analysts had forecast 1.7 percent growth for the year.
PORTUGAL
Government raises forecast
The government on Friday hoisted its forecast for economic growth this year to 1.2 percent from the 0.8 percent it had previously given. However, the European Commission, in its latest economic forecasts for the 18-member eurozone on Tuesday, kept Portugal’s growth forecast at 0.8 percent.
INDIA
Growth slows to 4.7%
Economic growth slowed last quarter, holding below 5 percent and denting the Congress party’s chances of extending its decade-long rule in national elections due by May. GDP rose 4.7 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31 last year from a year earlier, compared with 4.8 in the previous quarter, the Statistics Ministry said on Friday. The government forecasts the economy will expand 4.9 percent in the fiscal year ending March 31, compared with a decade-low 4.5 percent in the previous year.
SOUTH AFRICA
Trade deficit in January
The country posted a trade deficit in January with a jump in imports, after posting a surplus the month before, official data showed on Friday. The revenue service reported the 17.06 billion rand (US$15.9 billion) deficit against a 26.3 percent increase in imports, while exports improved slightly by 0.1 percent from December last year.
ITALY
Government bails out Rome
The new government on Friday decreed a payment of 570 million euros (US$787 million) to Rome to prevent the capital sliding into bankruptcy. The move sidesteps a refusal by parliament to divert funds from the country’s stretched coffers to bail out the city. However, the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi ordered Rome to come up with a multi-year plan to balance its books.
GERMANY
Moody’s raises outlook
Moody’s raised its outlook for the country’s “AAA” bond rating to “stable” from “negative” on Friday, citing the lowered risk that Berlin would be called on to prop up weak eurozone economies. Country-by-country progress in the eurozone, and progress in building the EU’s institutional barriers to crisis contagion, meant there was less danger Berlin would have to lead further bailouts, Moody’s said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors 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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”