ECONOMY
NZ interest rate cut to 2.75%
New Zealand’s central bank on Thursday reduced its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.75 percent and indicated more cuts were likely. The 0.25 percent rate cut was the third quarter-point reduction in recent months and had been expected by most economists. Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said the economy was growing at an annual rate of about 2 percent, down from about 4 percent last year. He said business and consumer confidence had weakened, while construction in Christchurch, which is rebuilding from a devastating 2011 earthquake, had reached a plateau.
CURRENCY
China reins in capital controls
China is tightening capital controls following a devaluation of its yuan, media reports said, as worries about financial outflows rise. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange had ordered financial institutions to increase checks and boost controls on foreign exchange transactions, especially over-invoicing of exports which is used to hide capital outflows, the Financial Times on Wednesday quoted unnamed sources and an internal memo as saying. “The main objective is to reduce volatility, curb capital outflows and limit depreciation pressure on the yuan,” DBS Bank’s Tommy Ong said.
ECONOMY
Brazil’s credit cut to junk
Standard & Poor’s cut Brazil’s sovereign credit rating to junk on Wednesday, citing the struggle by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s government to master growing debt and political turmoil. “We are lowering the long-term foreign and local currency ratings on Brazil to ‘BB+’ and ‘BBB-’ respectively,” the agency said in a statement. “The negative outlook reflects what we believe is a greater than one-in-three likelihood of a further downgrade due to a further deterioration of Brazil’s fiscal position,” the agency said.
EMPLOYMENT
Employment rate eases
Australian unemployment eased last month, official figures showed yesterday. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the jobless rate dipped to 6.2 percent last month from 6.3 percent — matching expectations — thanks to a better-than-expected jump in new posts. The latest data showed the proportion of adults in work or looking for work, measured by the participation rate, softened to 65.0 percent from 65.1 percent in July, after surging in June.
ECONOMY
Swedish deflation deepens
Swedish deflation deepened last month, giving the central bank little respite in its struggle to revive price growth in the largest Nordic economy. Consumer prices fell an annual 0.2 percent last month, according to Statistics Sweden. They were seen declining 0.1 percent in a survey of analysts and 0.2 percent by the central bank. Excluding changes in interest costs, the annual rate fell to 0.8 percent from 0.9 percent in July.
ECONOMY
Turkey’s GDP expands
Turkey’s GDP expanded 3.8 percent in the April-to-June period, compared with a revised 2.5 percent in the previous quarter, the statistics agency said yesterday. That compared with a median estimate of 3.1 percent in a Bloomberg survey of 16 analysts. Seasonally adjusted output rose 1.3 percent from the previous quarter. Household demand, which makes up roughly two-thirds of GDP, grew 5.6 percent in the second quarter while public consumption expanded 7.2 percent, the agency said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks