AUSTRALIA
Economy remains soft in Q4
The economy remained soft in the fourth quarter of last year as growth continued to be driven by exports, data showed yesterday, fueling expectations of further interest rate cuts. The economy grew by 0.5 percent in the three months to December last year to take the year’s rate of expansion to 2.5 percent, the Bureau of Statistics said. This was below analysts’ expectations of 0.7 percent quarterly growth for an annual GDP reading of 2.6 percent.
ITALY
‘Digital revolution’ planned
The government on Tuesday adopted a 6 billion euro (US$6.7 billion) plan to modernize its Internet network and improve access to broadband. The plan that the government’s economic development minister labeled a “digital revolution” aims to boost broadband access by 2020, in compliance with EU objectives. A report published last year by the US consultancy Akamai found that Italy came 48th among countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in terms of Internet speed and labeled it the slowest in the EU.
AUTOMAKERS
US auto sales cool off
Harsh winter storms chilled US auto sales last month, with Ford Motor Co especially taking a hit with a surprise 1.9 percent fall, while Toyota Motor Corp grabbed the No. 2 spot after General Motors Co. Overall, automakers’ figures showed more steady growth in the industry, with low gasoline prices continuing to enhance shopping for pickup trucks, and especially small and mid-sized sport utility vehicles, according to Autodata Corp.
BANKING
RBS to cut jobs: report
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is set to eliminate as many as 14,000 investment-banking jobs as part of a previously announced reorganization, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing two people familiar with the matter. The reductions would amount to most of the business’ workforce, with “a large proportion” occurring in the US and Asia, the newspaper said, citing the people it did not identify. The cuts would be complete by 2019, according to the report. RBS had a workforce of more than 108,000 at the end of last year.
ENERGY
Exxon sells US$8bn in bonds
Exxon Mobil Corp sold US$8 billion of debt in its biggest bond offering ever and the largest energy-related deal since the plunge in crude prices that began in July last year. The world’s largest oil company by market value boosted the deal by about 14 percent after previously marketing US$7 billion of debt, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction who asked not to be identified, citing lack of authorization to speak publicly. Irving, Texas-based Exxon issued the securities as a combination of fixed and floating-rate notes in the seven-part sale.
AUTOMAKERS
Toyota names foreign execs
Toyota Motor Corp promoted a French national and an American woman to unprecedented executive roles at the world’s largest automaker, marking a shake-up in management ranks predominantly comprising Japanese men. Didier Leroy, 57 and head of Toyota Europe since 2010, is set to become one of six executive vice presidents as of April 1, the company said yesterday in a statement. Julie Hamp, head of communications for North America, is to be made managing officer and become the first female executive in Toyota’s 77-year history.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by