JAPAN
Inflation, spending decline
The country’s inflation rate edged lower last month, with the core consumer price index, excluding fresh foods, rising 2.9 percent from a year earlier, compared with 3 percent the month before, according to data released yesterday. Excluding the impact of a 3 percentage point sales tax hike in April, it rose 0.9 percent, which would be the slowest increase in a year. Also yesterday, figures showed factory production for last month edged up a better-than-expected 0.2 percent month-on-month, the second straight increase, as exports improved. Separate figures showed the country’s unemployment rate slipped to 3.5 percent from 3.6 percent, while retail sales rose 1.4 percent last month. However, household spending fell 4 percent on-year, the seventh successive decline.
SOUTH KOREA
Industrial output falls
The country’s industrial output fell 1.6 percent last month from a month earlier, hit by labor disputes and slow smartphone sales, government data showed Friday. The fall in production was mostly in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries, compared to a rise of 0.1 percent in September, Statistics Korea said. Output in manufacturing alone fell 1.8 percent month-on-month, with a drop in key export items such as semiconductors. However, production in the service sector inched up 0.8 percent month-on-month and expanded 2.6 percent from a year earlier.
UNITED KINGDOM
Consumer confidence flat
The country’s consumer confidence held steady this month in the face of slipping confidence about the economy’s prospects over the next 12 months, a survey by polling company GfK showed yesterday. The headline consumer confidence index hovered at minus-2 for a second month in a row, a shade weaker than the forecast of minus-1 in a Reuters poll. Nick Moon, GfK’s managing director for social research, said flat consumer morale could continue until May’s national election.
RUSSIA
Ruble falls to new low
The ruble lost another 1.5 percent of its value yesterday morning as it extended a record slide after the OPEC oil cartel’s decision to leave its output ceiling unchanged.
The beleaguered Russian currency was down 1.55 percent and trading at 49.33 rubles to the US dollar 45 minutes after trading opened on the Moscow Exchange. The ruble shed 1.42 percent and was valued at 61.45 against the euro — also a historic low. The country’s currency lost more than 3 percent of its value on Thursday in response to OPEC’s decision not to cut back production to support prices that have fallen by about one-third since June.
UNITED KINGDOM
No Royal Mail stake sale
The government does not intend to sell its 30 percent stake in Royal Mail any time soon, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable said on Thursday, saying he would prefer to see the shares remain in state hands for the medium to long term. The government sold a 60 percent stake in the postal operator last year, attracting criticism at the time from rival politicians and trade unions who said the firm had been sold off too cheaply after shares rose by as much as 87 percent following the sale. Royal Mail shares were last trading at £0.421, well above their £0.330 debut price.
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