TURKEY
GDP growth forecast cut
The government is cutting its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year from 4.5 percent to 3.2 percent due to the negative global situation, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said yesterday. Yildirim said that GDP would grow 3.2 percent this year, in 2017 would expand 4.4 percent and from 2018-2019 is expected to return to a rate of 5 percent growth. The prime minister did not directly refer to the July 15 failed coup and plunge in tourism following attacks this year, which economists expect have eaten into GDP growth. Statistics last month showed that the economy grew 3.1 percent in the second quarter, slowing sharply from the strong figure of 4.7 percent the first quarter. The nation has enjoyed robust growth for much of the past decade in one the the key achievements of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the source of much of his popularity.
NETWORKS
Ericsson to lay off workers
Ericsson AB yesterday said it is to lay off 3,000 workers in Sweden and downsize operations as part of its global plan to cut costs by 9 billion kronor (US$1 billion) next year. The Swedish networks company said the job cuts will be in research and development, sales and administration. It employs 16,000 people in Sweden. The company said “technology shifts” were behind the layoffs. It also said that it would recruit 1,000 people in research and development in Sweden in the next three years to meet the demands of new technologies and increase its software portfolio. CEO Jan Frykhammar said the company would continue to have “a strong focus “on research and development and that the cost-cutting measures were necessary “to secure Ericsson’s long-term competitiveness as well as technology and services leadership.”
REAL ESTATE
PropertyGuru eyes Vietnam
PropertyGuru Pte, Southeast Asia’s largest real-estate Web site, is investing in Vietnam’s Batdongsan to gain a foothold in one of the fastest-growing countries in the region. PropertyGuru will gain two board seats at Vietnam’s largest real-estate site, according to a statement yesterday that did not disclose financial details. Batdongsan is used by 2 million people per month in Vietnam and has about 500 employees in seven offices. Growing Internet use by the country’s young population, where there are more mobile phones than residents, provides an attractive option for PropertyGuru, offsetting slumping regions such as its home market of Singapore. Vietnam’s economic growth accelerated to 6.4 percent in the third quarter from 5.8 percent in the previous quarter. Vietnam becomes PropertyGuru’s fifth market after Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
MINING
Lucara completes upgrade
Lucara Diamond Corp completed the first stage of upgrading its processing plant at the Karowe mine in Botswana that would introduce technology to recover some of the world’s biggest diamonds. The upgrades will allow the company to sift diamonds as big as 90mm amid tonnes of mining rubble, the Vancouver-based company said in a statement yesterday. Last year, Lucara recovered a 1,109-carat gem — named Lesedi la Rona — at Karowe, which was the world’s second-largest diamond even after breaking off a 374-carat chunk in the process.
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
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
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