JAPAN
Inflation hike offset by taxes
The nation said its core inflation rate — excluding food prices — edged higher in March to 2.2 percent, but taking into account a tax hike a year ago, prices remain almost flat. The government reported yesterday that the consumer price index excluding both food and energy prices was 2.1 percent, compared with 2 percent in February. Core inflation also measured 2 percent in February. On Thursday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said his target of 2 percent inflation, excluding the effect of the sales tax hike in April last year from 5 percent to 8 percent, is unlikely to be reached within this year.
SOUTH KOREA
Inflation rate remains low
The nation’s inflation rate last month remained at its lowest level since 1999, fanning concerns that the economy is slipping toward a period of deflation, government data showed yesterday. The consumer price index was up 0.4 percent last month from a year earlier, unchanged from the rate in March, Statistics Korea said. Rises in rents and services were largely offset by sharp declines in energy costs as oil prices plunged 20.9 percent from a year earlier. Inflation has remained far below the central bank’s target of 2.5 to 3.5 percent for nearly three years.
NEW ZEALAND
Wider deficit expected
The nation is to forecast a wider budget deficit this year than previously estimated, as low inflation slows revenue growth, Finance Minister Bill English said. The May 21 budget will show a deficit for the year ending June 30 that exceeds the NZ$572 million (US$435 million) forecast in the December last year half-year update, English said in a speech in Wellington yesterday. The forecast for the 2015-2016 surplus will be smaller than the NZ$565 million previously projected, he said. While Prime Minister John Key has maintained there is still a chance of a surplus when final accounts are tallied, English says inflation at a 15-year low of 0.1 percent is hurting government revenue.
ELECTRONICS
Defect limits Apple Watch
Apple Inc is said to have found a defect in a key component of its watch during production, forcing the company to limit supply of the new device, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation. The issue is in the Taptic Engine of the watch, which mimics the sensation of being tapped on the wrist, the Journal said. Tests of the watch found a reliability issue with the part made by Hong Kong-listed AAC Technologies Holdings Inc (瑞聲), one of the two suppliers of the Taptic Engine, the newspaper said. Parts from the second supplier, Nidec Corp, were not having the same issues.
FINANCING
Barclays launches tech fund
Barclays launched a new £100 million (US$154 million) fund yesterday to lend cash to fast-growing British technology firms who might not want to sell an equity stake. Barclays said it would lend up to £5 million for three years to technology firms that have secured venture-capital financing, filling what it said was a gap in the way technology firms were financed in Britain. It represents a debt finance option similar to those available to US tech firms, but not widely available in Britain.
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
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six