ECONOMY
Seoul keeps rate unchanged
The Bank of Korea held its key interest rate unchanged at a record low as it gauges the health of the economy and the impact of China’s currency devaluation. Authorities in Seoul are closely monitoring volatility in financial markets following the drop in the yuan, which the central bank yesterday said adds to uncertainties for South Korea. The central bank’s decision to hold the seven-day repurchase rate at 1.5 percent yesterday was unanimous and matched the forecast of all 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. It follows four cuts in the past year that total a full percentage point.
ECONOMY
German inflation slows
Inflation in Germany slowed fractionally last month with consumer prices rising by just 0.2 percent year-on-year, final data showed. In June, the index had risen by 0.3 percent on a 12-month basis, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. The slowdown was caused by a decline in energy prices, the data showed. Using the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices — the yardstick used by the European Central Bank (ECB) — inflation in Germany rose by just 0.1 percent year-on-year last month, the same rate of change as in June and a long way below the ECB’s annual inflation target of just below two percent.
ECONOMY
Mexico trims growth outlook Mexico’s central bank has lowered its forecast for this year’s economic growth. The Bank of Mexico is now predicting GDP is to expand between 1.7 percent and 2.5 percent. That is down from earlier forecasts of 2 percent to 3 percent. Bank Governor Agustin Carstens on Wednesday said that conditions point to “a low index of growth in economic activity.” On the positive side, he said inflation is seen as below 3 percent. The Mexican peso has fallen against the US dollar for nearly a year, prompting the central bank to auction off reserves to slow the currency’s slide.
INTERNET
Twitter lifts message limit
Twitter Inc lifted its character limit on Wednesday for direct messages between users, saying it would help make the private side of Twitter “more powerful and fun.” As a result, private messages no longer have the 140-character limit which applies to tweets. For now, the changes apply to Twitter users with Android and Apple mobile devices, online at twitter.com or on the TweetDeck application, although product manager Sachin Agarwal said the change “will continue to roll out worldwide over the next few weeks.” Limits still apply to those sending messages over SMS.
OIL AND SHIPPING
Maersk satisfied with Q2
Denmark’s shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk has reaffirmed its full-year outlook after delivering what it called “a satisfactory result” in the second quarter despite lower average container rates and a lower oil price. Overall profit dropped to US$1.09 billion in the three-month period that ended on June 30, from US$2.3 billion. Revenue fell to US$10.5 billion, down from US$12 billion in the same period last year. The Copenhagen-based group said yesterday it expects an underlying result for this year of around US$4.0 billion and reiterated that its strategy was “to become a premium conglomerate.” Earlier this year, Maersk ordered nearly 30 container ships as part of its US$15 billion investment program to meet growing demand for shipping and to replace less efficient vessels.
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