INDIA
WPI drops to 5.5-year low
The national wholesale inflation rate fell to a five-and-a-half-year low last month, driven by ongoing falls in fuel and food prices, data showed yesterday, boosting hopes of an interest rate cut early next year. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) — the national inflation measure with the biggest basket of goods — slipped to a lower-than-expected zero percent last month from a year earlier, official data showed. The latest WPI compares with a five-year-low of 1.77 percent recorded in October and came below analysts’ estimates of about 1.1 percent. The country, which relies heavily on fuel imports, is seen as benefiting from tumbling global oil prices.
BELGIUM
Big strike paralyzes nation
The country ground to a halt yesterday as the biggest national strike in years saw unions halt all flights and sever international rail links in protest at the new government’s austerity policies. The strike that began at airports and train stations late on Sunday has halted bus, tram and metro services, as well as most schools, businesses, factories and government offices. The protest is the climax of a union movement involving the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions, General Federation of Belgian Labor and the General Confederation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium that began last month with a march of more than 100,000 people and violent protests in Brussels. The respective Christian, socialist and liberal unions went ahead with the strike after the right-of-center government of Prime Minister Charles Michel refused to budge on plans to save 11 billion euros (US$13.7 billion) over five years. Unions oppose a decision by the coalition government to scrap plans for a usually automatic cost-of-living raise next year. They also reject public sector cutbacks and plans to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 starting in 2030.
RETAIL
H&M sales beat forecasts
Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe’s second-biggest clothing retailer, increased its sales for last month faster than analysts predicted, contributing to a 17 percent jump in fourth-quarter revenue. Sales last month in local currencies — including value-added tax — increased 10 percent from a year earlier, Stockholm-based H&M said in a statement yesterday. That topped the 8.4 percent gain anticipated in a survey by SME Direkt. H&M is investing in new formats and expanding its online business as the retailer faces competition from low-cost clothing retailers such as Primark.
AUTOMAKERS
Takata tightens up quality
Takata Corp has begun enforcing tighter quality controls on a group of parts suppliers as the auto safety equipment maker boosts production to replace millions of air bags recalled for a potentially deadly defect, according to people involved. Japan-basedTakata, whose exploding air bags have caused five deaths and a recall of more than 20 million vehicles globally, has come under investigation by US safety regulators and federal prosecutors and intense scrutiny from US lawmakers. Over the last two months, the company has launched a series of “urgent” inspections across its supply network and dispatched managers to parts makers in Japan and Asia to announce the changes, according to those involved, who asked not to be identified. Takata said its representatives would inspect 40 suppliers of key parts before the end of the year, one of those involved said.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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