ASIA-PACIFIC
S&P forecasts 5.3% growth
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) yesterday projected economic growth of 5.3 percent in the Asia-Pacific region next year and 5.2 percent for 2017, as strong consumer demand offsets the slower growth in exports and productivity in the region. As for emerging Asia, the ratings agency predicted growth of about 6 percent each for next year and in 2017. “India has overtaken China as the region’s growth leader, at least for now,” S&P said in a report. GDP growth for the so-called “Tiger” economies — Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea — is forecast to show a modest recovery in the next two years, with growth remaining below 3 percent, S&P said. However, growth in the Asia-Pacific region in the next two years will still be better than that in the rest of the global economy, the report said.
MACROECONOMY
Money supply increases
Annual growth of the M1B and M2 money supply increased last month mainly due to continued net foreign capital outflows, the central bank said on Tuesday. M1B, a narrow measure of the amount of money in circulation, last month rose 6.75 percent from a year earlier, while the broader M2 monetary measurement — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign currency deposits and mutual funds — increased 6.58 percent, the bank said in its monthly report. That compares with annual growth rates of M1B and M2 at 6.62 percent and 6.5 percent respectively in September. For the first 10 months, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 6.01 percent and 6.4 percent respectively, the bank said.
AUTOMakers
Tax bill may spur sales
If an amendment to the Commodity Tax Act (貨物稅條例) passes its third reading at the Legsislative Yuan by the end of this year, it could motivate motorists to replace their old vehicles and increase new car sales in Taiwan by about 250,000 units in the next five years, Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產) chairman Tsay Wen-rong (蔡文榮) said yesterday at an investors’ conference. The revision bill aims to trim commodity tax by up to NT$50,000 per vehicle for new car and motorcycle buyers in exchange of either exporting or discarding their used vehicles. Next year, the nation’s new car sales may grow to between 460,000 and 470,000 units — the highest level since 2004 — from about 410,000 units this year, Tsay said.
FINANCE
Merger amendment passes
An amendment to the Financial Institution Merger Act (金融機構合併法) passed its third reading on Tuesday at the Legislative Yuan. The amendment increases the incentives for financial institutions to conduct merger and acquisition (M&A) activities. Under the amended law, in addition to newly issued shares, surviving institutions or newly incorporated institutions may use shares of other institutions, cash or other property of different types or in different proportion as consideration to the shares held by the shareholders of the dissolved institutions. The law also provides tax incentives related to mergers of financial institutions by exempting them from securities transaction tax and business tax, while the land value increment tax of lands owned by dissolved institutions may be deferred until the lands are transferred. Moreover, the period to amortize the goodwill generated due to mergers will be extended from five years to 15 years.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained