NEW ZEALAND
GDP misses forecasts
The farm-dependent economy is growing more slowly than expected, official figures showed yesterday, feeding expectations of further interest-rate cuts. Statistics New Zealand said the economy expanded 0.4 percent in the three months to June, below consensus forecasts of 0.6 percent. That pushed annual growth in GDP down to 2.4 percent from 3.3 percent last year, the lowest in two years with economists expecting it to fall further. The June quarter improved on the first three months — when dairy prices plunged — but still fell short of economists’ estimates. “The 0.4 percent rebound ... from the 0.2 percent rise in the first quarter, is disappointing and supports our view that the economy is weaker than the RBNZ [Royal Bank of New Zealand] believes,” said Paul Dale, lead Australia and New Zealand economist at Capital Economics.
SWITZERLAND
‘Subdued’ economy tipped
Economic growth will stay below its potential this year and next, the government said yesterday. Output will expand 0.9 percent this year and 1.5 percent next year, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said in Bern. Its previous prediction, issued in June, was for growth of 0.8 percent and 1.6 percent respectively. The government said it continued to “expect the economy to remain very subdued in the second half of the year and to only strengthen during the course of 2016,” according to a statement. “The strong downward momentum in prices should gradually ease as the effects of the appreciation in the Swiss franc fade away.”
SLOVENIA
IMF warns over deficits
The nation needs to reduce budget deficits to rein in growing debt after it more than quadrupled since the start of the financial crisis, the IMF said on Wednesday. The fiscal situation remains in “a troubled state” with persistent budget shortfalls and the public debt set to rise to about 90 percent of GDP by 2020, the Washington-based lender said in a report. The fiscal gap widened from near balance in 2007 to a deficit of almost 14 percent of GDP in 2013 after the failure of domestic banks required public support of about 10 percent of total output, it said.
AUTO RENTAL
Hertz sells CAR stake
Hertz Global Holdings Inc sold a US$100 million stake in China Auto Rental Holdings Inc (CAR, 神州租車控股), sending shares of the Chinese car-rental company that it invested in in April 2013 to slump as much as 7.3 percent in Hong Kong yesterday. Hertz had agreed to place 59.57 million shares to an undisclosed third party at HK$13.01 per share, representing a 5.6 percent discount to the closing price on Wednesday. Hertz still owns about 13.6 percent of the company after the sale. CAR, based in Beijing, held its initial share sale in Hong Kong in September last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Oracle revenue declines
Oracle Corp’s fiscal first-quarter revenue fell short of analysts’ projections, crimped by a slowdown in software license sales amid a shift to Web-delivered cloud products. Revenue in the period that ended Aug. 31 fell 1.7 percent to US$8.45 billion, and profit before certain costs was US$0.53 a share, the Redwood City, California-based company said on Wednesday. Analysts on average had forecast sales of US$8.53 billion and profit of US$0.52. Net income in the first quarter declined to US$1.75 billion, or US$0.4 a share, from US$2.18 billion, or US$0.48, a year earlier.
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
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
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