FRANCE
Central bank predicts growth
The central bank yesterday said growth would accelerate over the next two years, in its first-ever annual projections for the eurozone’ second-largest economy. The economy was seen growing at 1.2 percent this year, rising to 1.8 percent next year and 1.9 percent in 2017. The projections were more optimistic than the government’s forecasts, which put growth this year at 1 percent. Also yesterday, statistics office INSEE published quarterly unemployment figures showing the jobless rate was 10 percent.
FINLAND
Economy contracts in Q1
The economy contracted in the first quarter as exports and investments declined, increasing the challenge for new Prime Minister Juha Sipila to lead the nation out of a three-year slump. GDP shrank 0.1 percent for a second consecutive three-month period, according to data from Statistics Finland in Helsinki. Three estimates by economists in a Bloomberg survey ranged from 0.2 percent growth to a 0.2 percent contraction. Adjusted for working days, economic output was unchanged from a year earlier.
EUROZONE
Inflation rising: ECB
The European Central Bank (ECB) has raised its forecast for inflation this year to 0.3 percent from zero previously. The step is another indication that the risk of crippling deflation — a long-term drop in prices — might be fading in Europe. Bank President Mario Draghi made the announcement at a news conference on Wednesday at the bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The bank is using quantitative easing to push inflation toward its goal of just under 2 percent and boost growth and job creation.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Brewer eyes water efficiency
Water security and resource efficiency have become and will remain a priority for SABMiller PLC in Africa as climate change exacerbates competition for resources, chief executive Alan Clark said. The London-based brewer has cut its global carbon emissions by 35 percent since 2008 and reduced water use per liter of beer by 28 percent, Clark told delegates at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town. The company now uses 3.3 liters of water to make one liter of beer, exceeding its target for the year.
TECHNOLOGY
Changes ahead: Whitman
Hewlett Packard Co chief executive Meg Whitman foresees greater consolidation in the technology industry, as her company prepares to split into an enterprise business and one that sells printers and PCs. After the split, the company’s enterprise division is to focus on cloud computing, security, software and mobility. “About every 10 to 15 years in technology, I see tectonic plate shifts,” Whitman said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “When that happens, the industry rearranges itself.”
TECHNOLOGY
Beats Pill in recall: Apple
Apple Inc on Wednesday announced it is recalling Beats Pill XL wireless speakers because of danger that batteries might get so hot they ignite in flames. Apple received eight reports of the Beats Pill XL speakers overheating, one incident involved a user’s finger getting burned and another involved damage to a desk, according to a recall advisory posted by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Apple asked people to stop using Beats Pill XL speakers and promised refunds of US$325 each.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts