MACROECONOMICS
Aging world slowing growth
The world economy, hobbled by aging populations, will slow dramatically over the next 50 years unless countries find ways to increase productivity. That is according to a report from the McKinsey Global Institute. It says that without big gains in output per worker, global growth will slow to around 2 percent per year over the next half century from an average 3.6 percent the past 50 years. That would be slower than worldwide growth after the Great Recession.
EUROZONE
Industrial output slowing
Industrial output in the eurozone rose 0.2 percent in November last year, official data showed on Wednesday, a modest sign of more solid economic growth despite looming deflation. However, over 12 months, industrial production in the eurozone was down 0.4 percent in November, the EU’s Eurostat agency said. Across the 28-nation EU, industrial output also edged higher by 0.2 percent in November, and a smaller 0.1 percent drop year-on-year.
REAL ESTATE
Singapore home sales fall
Singapore’s annual home sales last year dropped to the lowest in six years as government property measures and lending curbs stemmed purchases. Sales last year dropped by half to 7,557 units from 2013, the lowest number since the 2008 financial crisis, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Developers sold 230 units last month compared with 423 units in November last year.
FINANCIAL
JPMorgan sees 7% decline
JPMorgan Chase & Co on Wednesday reported a 7 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings, which were hit by a US$990 million charge for legal expenses and came short of what analysts estimated. The bank said it earned US$4.93 billion, or US$1.19 per share, for the three-month period that ended last month. That compares with a profit of US$5.28 billion, or US$1.30 per share, a year ago. Total revenue fell 3 percent to US$22.5 billion from US$23.2 billion a year ago.
AVIATION
Cyprus trying to sell carrier
The Cypriot government decided on Wednesday to try to sell off the name and logo of national carrier Cyprus Airways, shut down last week after breaking EU state aid rules. Deputy government spokesman Victor Papadopoulos said the aim was to find an investor to create jobs for some of the airline’s 550 axed staff and increase the Mediterranean holiday island’s connectivity with the outside world.
RETAIL
Burberry reports more sales
Britain’s luxury fashion group Burberry announced rising sales on Wednesday, but said its performance in key market Hong Kong had been hit by the city’s mass protests last year. Group underlying sales climbed 15 percent to £604 million (US$916 million) in the three-month period that ended last month, compared with the equivalent period one year earlier.
ENTERTAINMENT
Caesars unit files Chapter 11
US casino company Caesars Entertainment Corp put its main operating unit into bankruptcy in Chicago yesterday. The second Chapter 11 filing for the unit this week follows months of negotiation and litigation over how best to reduce the billions of dollars of debt assumed in a 2008 buyout that was arranged by Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management and David Bonderman’s TPG Capital Management.
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