UNITED KINGDOM
EU trade gap hits record
The nation’s goods trade gap with the EU widened to a record, with exports in the last three months falling to the lowest in more than six years. Data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed a deficit of £8.1 billion (US$11.7 billion) in January and £23 billion over the past three months. Both figures are the highest since the data began in 1998. Exports to the 28-nation bloc in the quarter ended January declined to £32.7 billion, the least since 2009, data showed. In a separate report, the ONS said construction output fell 0.2 percent in January from December last year and was down 0.8 percent year on year.
UNITED KINGDOM
Tax evaders in sights
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is to use the budget he unveils on Wednesday to announce a crackdown on the use of personal-service companies to avoid taxes. The measures are to require people hired off-payroll to pay employment taxes that are due, according to a government official briefed on the matter. The measure is to apply across the public sector, including departments, police, local authorities, the National Health Service, education establishments. The plan also would cover public corporations such as the BBC, Channel 4, Transport for London, the Bank of England and Network Rail.
EGYPT
Debt market seeks investors
The government is set to take measures to help bring back foreign investors to its debt market, according to a senior official at the central bank, a move that could help attract billions of US dollars to a nation where a hard-currency crunch is hampering economic recovery. Officials are planning to launch an option product next week that allows foreign investors to hedge against currency risk, the official said. It would be mainly tailored for investors in Treasury bills, the official said. The country grapples with a US dollar shortage and a budget deficit that could reach as much as 11.5 percent of economic output this year.
GUYANA
Forest reserve needs funds
The South American nation said it needs additional funds to help maintain a lush forest reserve of about 370,000 hectares that serves as an international research center. Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo made the appeal on Saturday as he warned that financing has dried up in recent years for the Iwokrama International Center located in the Iwokrama Forest in the heart of the country. The center was created in 1996 and also offers ecotourism adventures such as the live spotting of jaguars and endangered species like the giant anteater.
INDIA
Doctors challenge Pfizer
Doctors Without Borders has challenged Pfizer Inc’s application for an Indian patent for its pneumonia vaccine so that cheaper versions can be available to children in poor countries and to humanitarian organizations. The medical aid group, also known as Medicins Sans Frontieres, on Friday said that it challenged Pfizer’s patent application to allow Indian manufacturers to make affordable versions of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. The group said the vaccine was one of the world’s biggest sellers and that New York-based Pfizer had earned US$6 billion from its sales last year.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to