MACROECONOMICS
Moody’s raises Greek rating
Moody’s raised Greece’s credit rating by two notches on Friday, citing improvements to the government’s finances and its commitment to further gains. Moody’s set its new rating for Greece at “Caa1” with a stable outlook, up from “Caa3.” The new rating is still in “junk” territory, but is a significant sign of progress for the country as it struggles to emerge from crisis. The ratings agency said it expects Greece’s debt burden to peak this year, at 179 percent of GDP, and begin slowly falling as the economy begins to expand. Greece is also set to meet the target for a primary budget surplus of 1.6 percent this year set by its bailout lenders, the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. “The government’s progress in fiscal consolidation under its economic adjustment program underscores the improvement in the debt trajectory,” Moody’s said
MACROECONOMICS
PBOC to ease credit supply
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said the country’s credit and money supply have increased rapidly and indicated it is to refrain from broader monetary easing to support growth. “The total debt level has been rising relatively quickly,” the bank said in its second-quarter monetary policy implementation report released on Friday. “Our existing money supply and credit are already relatively large and their growth is also high,” it said. “Restructuring and reform of the economy remains an arduous task,” the central bank said. “It’s not appropriate to expand overall liquidity sharply to solve structural problems.” The IMF said this week that China’s reliance on debt and investment had created “rising vulnerabilities” and that failure to change its growth pattern increased the likelihood of a sharp economic slowdown.
BANKING
Bank of Ireland posts profit
The Bank of Ireland said on Friday that it had returned to profit for the first time since a housing crisis derailed the Irish economy six years ago. The commercial bank, which is based in Dublin, reported net income of 343 million euros (US$459.3 million) for the six months ending June 30. That compared with a loss of 463 million euros for same the period a year earlier and was ahead of analysts’ expectations. An improved economic outlook in Ireland and the UK has bolstered the bank’s results, chief executive of the Bank of Ireland Richie Boucher said in a statement on Friday. Ireland’s GDP this year is expected to grow 2.8 percent and 3.8 percent next year, the bank estimates.
MACROECONOMICS
US jobs growth eases
A sixth consecutive month of 200,000-plus job growth last month reinforced growing evidence that the US economy is accelerating after five years of sluggish growth. Employers added 209,000 jobs last month. That was fewer than in the previous three months, although the economy has now produced an average of 244,000 jobs a month since February — the best six-month period in eight years. The US Labor Department’s jobs report on Friday pointed to an economy that has bounced back with force after a grim start to the year and is expected to sustain its strength into next year. Economists generally expect it to grow at a 3 percent annual rate in the second half of this year after expanding 4 percent in the second quarter.
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