MANUFACTURING
China growth increases
China’s growth accelerated to a three-month high this month, but domestic and foreign demand were tepid, HSBC said yesterday. The British bank’s preliminary purchasing managers index (PMI) came in at 50.4 this month, above the 50 point level that separates expansion and contraction, and the strongest since July’s 51.7. The bank cautioned that despite the pickup in the headline figure, downside pressures remained given slowing internal and external demand growth and rising deflationary risks.
UNITED KINGDOM
Consumer confidence drops
Consumer confidence in Britain took its biggest tumble in four years this month as workers in low-paid sectors worry about losing their jobs in an economic slowdown, a survey published yesterday showed. The Consumer Confidence Index, produced by polling firm YouGov and economic forecasters CEBR, slid by 2.9 points to 111.2 points, its lowest level since January and its biggest monthly fall since October 2010. Britain’s unemployment rate fell to 6 percent in the three months to August, its lowest since late 2008, but job creation has slowed and wage growth remains weak.
EMPLOYMENT
Spain’s jobless rate declines
Spain’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest since the end of 2011 in the third quarter as its economy turned into one of the fastest-growing in the euro region. Joblessness fell to 23.7 percent in the three months through last month from 24.5 percent in the previous quarter, Spain’s national statistics institute INE said in Madrid yesterday. That compares with the median estimate of 24.1 percent in a Bloomberg News survey.
NEW ZEALAND
Annual inflation falls to 1%
The nation’s annual inflation rate fell to 1 percent in the 12 months to last month, official data showed yesterday. Statistics New Zealand said the cost of living rose just 0.3 percent in the July-to-September quarter, well below market forecasts of 0.5 percent, as transport costs fell and food prices remained flat. That put annual inflation at 1 percent, the bottom end of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s 1 percent to 3 percent target range, giving the central bank leeway to keep rates on hold in the short to medium term.
BANKING
Credit Suisse doubles profit
Credit Suisse Group reported a profit of 1.02 billion Swiss francs (US$1.07 billion) in the third quarter, more than double compared with the previous year, benefiting from cost-cutting, emerging markets and services for wealthy clients. In a financial statement yesterday, Switzerland’s second-largest bank attributed the results to continued cost cutting drives, stable revenues and strong results in emerging markets for both its investment banking and wealth management divisions.
ECONOMY
Unilever: EU prices falling
Unilever PLC, the maker of consumer products, said it saw price deflation in Europe’s largest markets in the third quarter. The company reported third-quarter sales of 12.2 billion euros (US$15.4 billion) yesterday, down 2 percent compared with a year earlier. However, it said “underlying sales,” a measure that excludes currency effects and the impact of acquisitions, were up 2.1 percent. The company said it saw price deflation in Germany, France and Britain. It said sales volumes grew in North America, but growth is slowing in emerging markets, including China.
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],”