ECONOMY
S Korea growth slows
South Korea’s economic growth slowed to 3.2 percent in the third quarter, the lowest in five quarters, from 3.5 percent growth in the April-to-June quarter as weakness in exports and spending by companies offset the boost from government stimulus. The Bank of Korea yesterday said that capital expenditure contracted 0.8 percent from the previous quarter and exports turned negative, while government spending contributed significantly to third-quarter growth.
GERMANY
Consumer confidence rises
A survey found that a downward trend in consumer confidence has come to an end, despite cooler growth prospects for Europe’s biggest economy. The GfK research group yesterday said that its forward-looking consumer climate index edged up to 8.5 points for next month from 8.4 this month. It found that public willingness to buy has increased amid low unemployment and that income expectations continue to improve, while consumers’ economic outlook has stabilized.
FINANCE
Argentina offers new bond
Argentina on Thursday began offering a new two-year sovereign bond for US$1 billion, at a time when the government is desperately looking for fresh sources of financing. The bond issue is set to be denominated in US dollars, but paid in local pesos. The Argentine Ministry of the Economy said the Bonad 2016 has an annual coupon of 1.75 percent. The obligations are set to be paid every semester on April 28 and Oct. 28 at Argentina’s official exchange rate. A US court ruling also recently pushed Argentina into its second technical default in 13 years.
CHEMICAL
BASF warns of low profits
Chemical and oil company BASF AG is warning that its profits are set to come in below its previous forecast in the wake of slower global economic growth and industrial production. BASF upheld its target of a slight increase in pretax earnings this year, but said that “from today’s point of view” it no longer expects to reach its previous forecast for next year of 80 billion euros in revenue and 14 billion euros in pretax profit. It said it now expects those figures to be “in line with market expectations” — in the case of pretax profit that means somewhere between 10 and 12 billion euros.
AUTOMAKERS
GM posts Q3 earnings slide
General Motors Co (GM) on Thursday reported lower third-quarter earnings on weakness in some international markets, but showed signs of emerging from a costly ignition-recall scandal. Earnings at GM, the biggest US automaker, fell 14.3 percent from the previous year to US$1.47 billion as the company reported operating losses in both Europe and South America. However, GM reported higher operating earnings in North America.
INFRASTRUCTURE
China to build Tanzanian city
China Railway Jianchang Engineering Co (中鐵建廠工程局) agreed to construct a US$1 billion satellite city and US$500 million financial district in Tanzania, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete’s administration said. Under the accord signed with Tanzania’s National Housing Corp, Salama Creek Satellite city is set to be built in Uvumba, a district on the outskirts of the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, the administration said in an e-mailed statement. The new financial services district is set to be in the suburb of Upanga, it said.
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