After a dismal winter, the US economy expanded at an annual rate of 4.6 percent in the spring, the fastest pace in more than two years, the government reported yesterday.
The US Commerce Department said the April-June figure followed a decline of 2.1 percent in the first three months of the year, when a harsh winter caused the biggest drop in activity since the Great Recession.
Friday’s result was even better than the 4.2 percent estimate made a month ago.
The latest upward revision in GDP reflected newfound strength in business investment, which grew at an annual rate of 9.7 percent in the second quarter. The result is better than the US government’s previous estimate of 8.1 percent, bolstered by both investment in structures and equipment.
The revision showed that export sales grew at an 11.1 percent rate in the second quarter, stronger than a previous 10.1 percent estimate, another factor helping to boost growth.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity, grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate, unchanged from the previous estimate, but double the 1.2 percent growth in consumer spending in the first quarter.
Economists now expect much less volatility in growth going forward. Many say the US economy will grow at an annual rate of 3 percent or better in both the current July-September quarter and in the final quarter this year.
However, because of the rough start to the year, growth for all of this year is expected to be a lackluster 2.1 percent, little changed from last year’s 2.2 percent GDP increase, they added.
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