BANKING
India keeps rates on hold
India’s central bank yesterday kept interest rates on hold as expected as it awaits more proof that stubbornly high inflation is headed downward in Asia’s third-largest economy. After a meeting in Mumbai, the Reserve Bank of India said the benchmark repo rate, at which it lends to commercial banks, would remain at a steep 8 percent. Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said that although headline inflation had slowed, the full impact of just-ended annual rains that are crucial for crop production is yet to be seen. The rates hold was widely expected by economists, but business leaders have been clamoring for the bank to cut rates and bring down steep borrowing costs to spur sluggish economic growth.
TELECOMS
Huawei eyes French phones
The founder of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technology Co (華為) on Monday announced plans to invest 1.5 billion euros (US$1.9 billion) in France to develop smartphones, the online edition of Les Echos business daily reported on Monday. Ren Zhengfei (任正非), who met French Prime Minister Manuel Valls in Paris, said Huawei’s plan would be carried out over three years. Huawei is looking to increase the number of its European providers and is already working with some major French groups such as STMicro, which provides components for its smartphones, Les Echos said. The announcement comes on the heels of Huawei’s opening on Sept. 12 of a new European research and development center at the Sophia-Antipolis technology park near Nice, France.
WEALTH
Gates still richest in US
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates topped Forbes’ latest list of the 400 richest Americans for the 21st straight year. The list, released on Monday, was largely unchanged from last year’s and showed the rich getting richer. The combined wealth of those on the list rose 13 percent to US$2.29 trillion, helped by a stronger US stock market. Gates’ net worth totaled US$81 billion, up US$9 billion from last year. Investor Warren Buffett, the head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, remained in second place at US$67 billion. Oracle Corp cofounder Larry Ellison also kept his No. 3 spot with US$50 billion. The biggest gainer is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, No. 11, whose net worth grew US$15 billion since last year to US$34 billion. The average net worth of a Forbes 400 member is US$5.7 billion, up from US$5 billion last year.
ECONOMY
Britain posts Q2 growth
Britain’s recovering economy grew more than expected in the second quarter, revised official data showed yesterday. GDP expanded by 0.9 percent in the April-to-June period compared with output in the first three months of the year, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. The office had put second-quarter GDP output at 0.8 percent in previous readings — a rate of growth which meant Britain’s economy had overtaken the size it achieved before the global financial crisis of 2008. The economy expanded by 3.2 percent in the second quarter compared with the equivalent period last year, the office confirmed yesterday, while growth in the eurozone ground to a halt in the second quarter, dragged down by France and Germany. France’s public debt amounted to 2.02 trillion euros in the second quarter of the year, the national statistics agency INSEE said, which represents 95.1 percent of GDP. EU rules limit debt to 60 percent of GDP.
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],”