ECONOMY
US posts 3.7% GDP growth
The US economy staged a far bigger rebound last quarter than first thought, outpacing the rest of the developed world and bolstering confidence that it can remain sturdy in coming months despite global headwinds. The GDP expanded at an annual rate of 3.7 percent in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday. That is more than a percentage point greater than the initial 2.3 percent estimate and a sharp upgrade from the anemic 0.6 percent advance during the January-March quarter.
ECONOMY
Swiss avoid recession
Switzerland unexpectedly avoided a recession last quarter as investment and private consumption helped return the economy to growth. GDP increased 0.2 percent in the three months through June, after a contraction of 0.2 percent in the previous quarter, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said yesterday. Equipment and software investment increased 1.5 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, while exports of goods excluding non-monetary gold, valuables and merchanting rose 0.5 percent, figures showed.
ECONOMY
UK service industry grows
Growth across UK services companies surged this month, adding to signs that the strong pace of economic upturn has continued into the second half of this year, a business survey showed on yesterday. The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) survey showed the biggest influx of work for business and professional services companies since records started in 1998, while conditions for consumer services companies also improved. “Companies are still looking to invest in people and capital, especially in IT which will help them exploit new technology and boost productivity,” the CBI said.
FOOD
Nestle tied to slave labor
Swiss food giant Nestle SA is being sued in the US for allegedly knowingly allowing its Fancy Feast cat food to contain fish from a Thai supplier that uses slave labor. Pet food buyers who filed the class action lawsuit on Thursday in US federal court in Los Angeles seek to represent all California consumers of Fancy Feast who would not have purchased the product had they known it had ties to slave labor. Nestle lists protection of human rights as one of its Corporate Business Principles.
FINANCE
Sachs Korea closes
Goldman Sachs Group Inc completed the winding down of its asset-management business in South Korea, as a regulator approved closing the last remaining part of it. Almost three years after Goldman Sachs Asset Management Korea Co announced its plans to exit and after a name change to Goldman Sachs Investment Advisory Co, the business was shuttered on Friday last week, according to a statement on the Financial Services Commission’s Web site.
FINANCE
Huarong approved for IPO
China Huarong Asset Management Co (中國華融資產管理), the nation’s biggest bad-loan manager, received Hong Kong stock exchange approval for an initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Beijing-based company plans to seek about US$2 billion from the share sale, they said. It might start gauging demand for the offering early next month, the people said.
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