GERMANY
Consumer sentiment flat
There was little sign of Brexit uncertainty in a monthly survey of German consumers released yesterday, with the public’s mood almost unchanged this month compared with last month. Market research company GfK’s headline consumer sentiment index fell slightly to 10 points this month, compared with 10.1 points last month. The score was slightly higher than expected by analysts surveyed by Factset, who had forecast a larger fall to 9.9 points. Sentiment “developed positively overall, and apparently digested the Brexit shock well,” the pollsters wrote in a statement.
JAPAN
Consumer prices dip 0.5%
Japanese inflation continued to disappoint last month, data released yesterday showed, with consumer prices dropping for a fifth straight month in the latest blow to Tokyo’s faltering war on deflation. The 0.5 percent decline last month was worse than the 0.4 percent average fall expected by economists. The weak inflation figures will heap more pressure on Japan’s central bank for another round of stimulus. The Bank of Japan holds its next meeting late next month. ‘
SPAIN
GDP edges up 0.8%
The Spanish economy expanded 0.8 percent sequentially in the second quarter — slightly higher than the 0.7 percent estimate it had announced last month. The 0.8 percent growth in the second quarter was the same as that of the first quarter. Compared with the same period last year, the economy rose 3.2 percent from April to June — a slower rate than the first quarter, when the economy grew 3.4 percent year-on-year, the Ine said.
AIRLINES
Air NZ posts record profit
New Zealand’s national airline yesterday posted a record profit thanks to surging tourism and lower fuel costs, but said it expected increased competition from rival international carriers in the year ahead. Air New Zealand announced an after-tax profit of NZ$463 million (US$339 million) for the year ending June, an increase of 42 percent over the previous year. Revenue rose 6.2 percent over the previous year to NZ$5.2 billion. A record 3.3 million people visited New Zealand in the year ending last month, up 11 percent from a year earlier.
CONGLOMERATES
Citic first-half profit fell 46%
Citic Ltd (中國中信), China’s biggest conglomerate, reported that net income for the six months through June 30 dropped 46 percent to HK$20.2 billion (US$2.6 billion) from HK$37.7 billion a year earlier, according to a filing to Hong Kong’s stock exchange yesterday. In a letter to shareholders, Citic said that Chinese banks’ profitability and capital would likely be eroded “in the near term.”
BANKING
Suspended banks seek truce
Nine Nigerian lenders banned this week from foreign-exchange trading for failing to remit some oil money into a government account are holding talks with the central bank to seek a truce, operators said on Thursday. The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday suspended nine banks for withholding US$2.12 billion belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp and the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas contrary to a government regulation. A top executive at one of the affected banks said the ban might trigger “a run on the banks,” as concerned customers withdraw their deposits.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure