SOUTH KOREA
Inflation slows to 1.4%
South Korea’s inflation rate slowed to 1.4 percent last month, helped by stable prices of farming goods, government data showed yesterday. The increase in the consumer price index was compared to a 1.6 percent gain in July. It was the slowest growth pace since April, when consumer prices rose 1.5 percent. The central bank has set a band of 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent as its inflation target for this year.
Japan
Wages continue to increase
Japan’s government reported on Thursday that average wages rose 2.6 percent in July from a year earlier at their fastest pace in over 17 years, mostly helped by bonus payments. Average monthly wages for regular employees jumped to ¥369,846 (US$3,544) in July, the biggest jump on month since January 1997 and the fifth straight month of increase, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said. Average base wages also increased 0.7 percent, the fastest increase in more than 14 years. Special cash earnings, including bonuses, rose 7.1 percent, the ministry said.
AUSTRALIA
Base rate kept at 2.5%
Australia’s central bank kept interest rates on hold at a record low 2.5 percent yesterday as it flagged an accommodative monetary policy and stepped up its rhetoric against the local dollar. The Reserve Bank of Australia said it was prudent to maintain a “period of stability in interest rates” to support demand and growth in the economy as it shifts away from a dependence on mining.
INDIA
Debt high, but ‘sustainable’
India’s current-account deficit widened to a one-year high after policymakers eased some restrictions on gold imports, while staying below the level the central bank considers sustainable. The April-June shortfall in the broadest measure of trade rose to US$7.8 billion from US$1.2 billion the previous quarter, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement on Monday. That is lower than US$21.8 billion a year earlier and amounts to 1.7 percent of GDP. The RBI considers a deficit of 2.5 percent of GDP as sustainable.
SOUTH KOREA
Emissions tax on backburner
South Korea has delayed a proposed tax on vehicle carbon emissions by more than five years to the end of 2020, but confirmed it would push ahead with plans to begin its carbon emissions trading scheme from the start of next year, finance minister Choi Kyung-hwan said yesterday. The finance ministry said the so-called smog tax, which has already been postponed by more than two years, would place too much of a burden on industry if it was launched at the same time as the carbon trading scheme.
GERMANY
Taxi drivers challenge app
Uber Technologies Inc, maker of the ride-hailing application that is being challenged by cab drivers around the globe, faces a Germany-wide ban as a taxi organization won an emergency ruling in a Frankfurt court. Based on the evidence presented by Taxi Deutschland Service Gesellschaft fuer Taxizentralen eG, Uber violates German law because drivers need a license, the court said in the ruling dated on Aug. 25. The decision was issued under a fast-track procedure and also took a legal brief submitted by Uber into account. Uber can ask for a full hearing to have it overturned.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six