VIETNAM
Bank to devalue dong
The central bank yesterday said it is to devalue the dong in a bid to contain inflation and bolster economic growth. The State Bank of Vietnam is to devalue the reference rate by 1 percent to 21,458 dong per US dollar to “control inflation and... push up economic growth,” it said in a statement. The move — the second devaluation in eight months — is “in accordance with the developments of the domestic and international financial markets,” the central bank said. The economy grew 5.98 percent last year — the highest for three years — while inflation slowed to 4.09 percent, official figures showed. The government is targeting economic growth of 6.2 percent this year.
MALAYSIA
Trade surplus high surprises
The nation’s trade surplus surged to a three-year high of 11 billion ringgit (US$3.1 billion) in November, beating a median estimate of 4.1 billion ringgit and the highest since October 2011. Overseas shipments unexpectedly climbed 2.1 percent, official data yesterday showed, beating the median estimate of economists of a 0.7 percent contraction and following October’s 3.2 percent drop. Imports rose a less-than-forecast 0.1 percent. Barclays PLC cut its economic growth forecast for the nation to 4.5 percent for last year from 5.5 percent, citing the drop in commodity prices and rising market volatility.
UNITED STATES
Fed board nominee named
President Barack Obama is to nominate former Bank of Hawaii Corp chairman and chief executive officer Allan Landon to join the US Federal Reserve board of governors, the White House announced on Tuesday. Landon, 66, served as chairman and chief executive of the bank from 2004 to 2010, and at other positions in the bank for the four years prior to that. He was chief financial officer of First American Corp and its subsidiary, First American National Bank, from 1998 to 2000.
AUTOMAKERS
VW workers strike in Brazil
Workers at the Brazilian subsidiary of German automaker Volkswagen AG have gone on strike to protest the dismissal of 800 workers. The metalworkers union in the Sao Paulo suburb of Sao Bernardo Do Campo said the strike affects all of Volkswagen’s 13,000 workers in Brazil. It said on Tuesday they plan to remain on strike until the 800 are rehired. Volkswagen said in a statement the strike brought the company’s assembly line to a standstill. It would not reveal the number of cars produced each day at the plant. The company said the negative market scenario justified the dismissals. Sales last year were 7 percent less than in 2013, exports were down 40 percent and output was 15 percent less.
TOURISM
LA sees record numbers
Los Angeles set new records for tourism and for passengers arriving at Los Angeles International Airport last year, reaching levels that were hailed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as crucial to the region’s economy. Garcetti said 43.4 million tourists visited Los Angeles last year, marking the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking tourism for the US’ second-largest city. More than 70 million passengers were estimated to have traveled through the airport last year, another record for one of the world’s busiest airports, the mayor 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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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