BANKING
China to cut reserve rate
China is to cut the amount of funds that rural banks must keep in reserve, Xinhua news agency said, in a small easing of monetary policy by the government as it tries to provide support to the slowing economy. The State Council said it would allow a cut in the reserve requirements for some county-level commercial banks and cooperative banks in rural areas, Xinhua reported late on Wednesday, but gave no details. The announcement came on the day the government said GDP grew 7.4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, sharply down from 7.7 percent the previous quarter, owing to a slow global recovery as well as domestic structural reforms.
ECONOMY
Japanese confidence tanks
Japan’s consumer confidence fell last month to the lowest level since August 2011, a reading that may tumble more this month after an April 1 sales-tax increase hit the public’s spending power. The reading was 37.5 last month, down from 38.5 in February, the Cabinet Office said yesterday. About 90 percent of respondents expect prices to rise over the next 12 months, the highest in comparable data back to 2004.
INTERNET
‘Heartbleed’ cited in arrest
Canadian federal police said on Wednesday they had arrested and charged a 19-year-old man in the theft of 900 Canadian taxpayers’ data, which was made vulnerable by the “Heartbleed” bug. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes was arrested at his London, Ontario, home on Tuesday without incident. He was scheduled to appear in court yesterday to face charges of mischief and unauthorized use of a computer to steal data from the Canada Revenue Agency’s Web site.
COMPUTERS
IBM revenues disappoint
IBM Corp’s first-quarter earnings fell and revenue came in below analyst expectations amid an ongoing decline in its hardware business, one that was exacerbated by weaker demand in China and emerging markets. The company said on Wednesday that it earned US$2.38 billion, or US$2.29 per share, in the January-to-March period. That is down 21 percent from US$3.03 billion, or US$2.70 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 4 percent to US$22.5 billion, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of decline. The biggest drop was in hardware, where revenue tumbled 23 percent to US$2.39 billion from US$3.11 billion.
CREDIT
Amex profit climbs 12%
American Express said its net income climbed 12 percent in the first quarter, helped by higher spending by its cardholders even as cold winter weather gripped much of the US. The New York-based company said on Wednesday that its net profit rose to US$1.43 billion, or US$1.33 per share, in the three months ending March 31. That compares with a net income of US$1.28 billion, or US$1.15 per share, in the same period last year. Revenue rose 4 percent to US$8.2 billion from US$7.88 billion the year before.
SOFTWARE
SAP profit rose 3% in Q1
German software giant SAP yesterday said it was sticking to its full-year forecasts for this year after profits rose slightly in the first quarter. SAP said that net profit rose 3 percent to 534 million euros (US$739 million) in the period from January to March, while operating profit climbed 12 percent to 723 million euros on a 3 percent increase in revenues to 3.7 billion euros.
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