MACROECONOMICS
Bank of Japan holds steady
The Bank of Japan yesterday held fire on expanding its unprecedented monetary easing scheme, but warned a slowdown in emerging markets was weighing on growth, prompting speculation it will unveil fresh measures soon. The bank said in a statement after its two-day policy meeting that while that the economy “has continued to recover moderately ... exports and production are affected by the slowdown in emerging economies.” Bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has pushed back a timeline for hitting 2 percent inflation, although he has signaled he would consider expanding stimulus if weak oil prices keep price rises close to zero.
BRAZIL
Austerity plan announced
The government on Monday announced a massive US$17 billion austerity package in a bid to boost its ailing economy amid a deepening crisis that has already caused a shock downgrade of its credit rating. The package — announced at a news conference by Planning Minister Nelson Barbosa — includes freezing public sector salary raises and hiring, entirely eliminating 10 of 39 ministries, cutting 1,000 jobs and slashing housing and health-related social spending. The economic outlook is grim, with GDP forecast to shrink 1.49 percent this year, the government said previously.
MACROECONOMICS
Sierra Leone’s output falls
Sierra Leone’s economic output is predicted to contract 22 percent this year as the nation’s mining and agricultural industries face the dual pressures of recovering from an Ebola outbreak and a commodity-price slump. The economy grew 4.6 percent last year. The deadliest-ever Ebola outbreak has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly in the hardest hit countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, since December 2013. The three West African governments estimate US$8 billion is needed to rebuild their economies.
INTERNET
Russia to penalize Google
The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) on Monday said that Google Inc was abusing its market position in the country and would face penalties, in a case launched by local competitor Yandex. the FAS said Google had violated the law by pre-installing certain applications on mobile devices and could face penalties totaling up to 15 percent of its revenue last year in that part of the Russian market. The FAS declined to specify the revenue in question, saying it was a trade secret, but said it would decide on the exact value of the fine after Sept. 28. It added Google must then pay and change its ways, or risk more fines if violations continue. Yandex, which filed a complaint against Google with the FAS in February, welcomed the decision.
RETAIL
Poor sales blamed on heat
Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), Europe’s second-largest clothing retailer, reported its slowest monthly sales growth in more than two years as soaring temperatures last month in countries such as Germany weighed on demand. Revenue last month rose 1 percent expressed in local currencies, Stockholm-based H&M said in a statement yesterday, the weakest performance since a 4 percent decline in March 2013. That missed the average analyst estimate for growth of 5.4 percent, according to an SME Direkt survey. H&M blamed “unseasonably warm weather” in many of its large European markets for the slowdown.
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
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],”