CHINA
Retail sales likely to slow
Retail sales, a key gauge of domestic consumption in the world’s second-biggest economy, are likely to post slower growth this year compared with last year, the Ministry of Commerce said at a news conference in Beijing yesterday. Retail sales are expected to expand by 10.7 percent this year, it said, without giving a reason. Retail sales rose 12 percent last year and 10.6 percent in the first 11 months of the year. Last month, retail sales increased by an annual 11.2 percent — the strongest monthly expansion this year.
JAPAN
Japan falls into deficit
The nation’s trade balance slipped back into a deficit last month, but was nearly 60 percent lower than a year earlier as a drop in imports outpaced a 3 percent decline in its exports. Exports totaled ¥5.98 trillion (US$48 billion) and imports ¥6.36 trillion, leaving a deficit of ¥379.7 billion. In October, the nation recorded a surplus of ¥111.5 billion. Overall, imports fell 10 percent thanks largely to a drop in costs for imports of crude oil and gas.
JAPAN
Companies hold record cash
The latest government data show that companies are hoarding more cash than ever, even as Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has repeatedly said wage growth is needed for sustainable inflation. Cash and deposits held by companies rose 6.1 percent from a year earlier to a record ¥247 trillion at the end of September, the BOJ’s quarterly flow of funds report showed yesterday. Households held 53 percent of their ¥1,684 trillion assets in cash, little changed from 55 percent in December 2012 when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office.
SWITZERLAND
GDP growth revised up
Economic momentum is set to pick up over the next two years, as the state of the global economy gradually improves, the government said yesterday. GDP is expected to expand 1.5 percent next year and 1.9 percent in 2017, from an estimated 0.8 percent this year, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said. The agency’s previous forecast, issued in September, predicted growth of 0.9 percent this year, followed by 1.5 percent next year.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Lower-cost insulin approved
US federal health officials have approved a cheaper version of the world’s top-selling insulin from Sanofi for US patients with the most common form of diabetes. The US Food and Drug Administration approved a new form of Sanofi’s pen-like injector, called Lantus, from drugmakers Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim. Insulin is crucial for controlling the sugar levels in the blood. People with diabetes either do not produce enough insulin or cannot properly use it.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AstraZeneca buying Acerta
British pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca PLC yesterday said it had agreed to buy a 55 percent stake in Acerta Pharma, which is developing a medicine for blood cancers. AstraZeneca will pay US$2.5 billion upfront, then a further US$1.5 billion once Dutch and US-based Acerta’s experimental drug acalabrutinib obtains regulatory approval from US authorities or else by the end of 2018. Acalabrutinib has shown promise in treating leukemia and also autoimmune diseases such as lupus.
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],”