MACROECONOMICS
German wages rose in Q2
German real wages rose by 2.3 percent on the year in the second quarter, the Federal Statistics Office said yesterday. Nominal wages increased by 2.4 percent on the year between April and June while consumer prices rose by 0.1 percent in the second quarter. The increase was mainly driven by strong wage hikes for workers in the real estate business, transport and logistics sector as well as catering industry.
NEW ZEALAND
Interest rates left unchanged
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand yesterday left interest rates at a record low of 2 percent, but warned more cuts were likely. The decision was widely expected after the bank trimmed its base rate by 0.25 points last month. Annual inflation was 0.4 percent in the second quarter and has stubbornly remained below the central bank’s 1 percent to 3 percent target for seven quarters.
TAXATION
Mexicans probed after leaks
The Tax Authority of Mexico on Wednesday announced that the financial affairs of hundreds of Mexicans mentioned in a cache of documents dubbed the “Bahamas Leaks” will be checked for tax violations. More than 400 Mexicans, including lawyers, former officials, and owners of offshore companies in the Bahamas, were named in leaks published in a database on Wednesday by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media outlets.
INVESTMENT
NSE asked to investigate
India’s markets regulator has asked the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) to investigate claims of some high-frequency trading firms gaining unfair access at the country’s biggest bourse. The Securities & Exchange Board of India has also asked the exchange to deposit all revenue from fiber links between colocation facilities, which refers to placing traders’ servers next to that of an exchange, and brokers’ offices in an escrow account pending the probe, NSE chairman Ashok Chawla said yesterday. The NSE will hire an external agency to investigate the “alleged manipulation” of its technology and will submit a report to the regulator within three months, Chawla said.
AUTOMAKERS
Upgrade for Tesla software
Tesla Motors Inc customers will get enhanced radar and other features in an over-the-air software update that started on Wednesday night. The update makes the Model S sedan and Model X SUV rely more on radar than cameras when driving in Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot mode. Teslas made after October 2014 have radar. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the change should help avoid crashes like the one that killed a Tesla driver in Florida in May. That driver — who was using Autopilot — crashed into a tractor-trailer that Tesla’s camera failed to detect.
UNITED KINGDOM
Poll finds investment freeze
A new Bank of England survey suggests some businesses are freezing both investment and hiring in the aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the EU, with broadly flat levels of spending in the next six months to a year. The so-called agents’ summary of business conditions revealed that in some sectors, such as commercial real estate, “all non-essential recruitment had been frozen.” However, the bank said businesses were more optimistic following the initial shock of the vote.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six