CHINA
Alarm on currency outflows
Currency outflows might be bigger than they look, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc warning that a rising amount of capital is exiting the nation in yuan rather than in US dollars. While the nation’s foreign exchange reserves have stabilized and lenders’ net foreign exchange purchases for clients have fallen close to a one-year low, official data showed that US$27.7 billion in yuan payments left the nation in August. That is compared with a monthly average of US$4.4 billion in the five years through 2014. Such large cross-border moves need to be taken into account when measuring currency outflows, said M.K. Tang (鄧敏強), Hong Kong-based senior China economist at Goldman Sachs. Any sign of increased capital outflows could disturb a recent calm in China’s foreign exchange market, adding to pressure from a potential US Federal Reserve interest rate increase and denting the yuan’s image as the world’s newest global reserve currency.
SINGAPORE
Policy move not expected
The central bank will probably refrain from easing policy when it meets this week, saving its ammunition for next year as the economic outlook deteriorates. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which uses the currency rather than interest rates to manage the economy, is expected to maintain its current policy settings, according to 21 of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The central bank eased twice last year and again in April at the first of this year’s two scheduled meetings, when it shifted to a neutral stance of zero appreciation for the Singapore dollar. Growth and inflation have not slowed enough to justify further action, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. The bank is set to reserve its firepower for next year, when the city is likely to feel more pain from China’s slowdown and the slump in oil prices that has hurt the local marine and offshore industry.
TELECOMS
Taiwan Mobile profit rises
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s No. 2 telecom, yesterday reported NT$1.24 billion (US$39.22 million) in net profit for last month on revenue of NT$9.5 billion. The firm cited the launch of Apple Inc’s iPhone 7 and fast-growing 4G subscriptions for the 6 percent annual increase in revenue. In the first nine months of this year, net profit dropped slightly to NT$11.88 billion, compared with NT$11.92 billion in the same period last year, reaching 88 percent of the company’s net profit forecast of NT$13.5 billion for this year.
TECHNOLOGY
Innovation Pavilion to open
The American Innovation Pavilion is to open today at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei in a ceremony hosted by Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳) and American Institute in Taiwan Director Kin Moy, the event’s organizer said yesterday. The opening ceremony is to feature a speech by Tang delivered using virtual-reality technology. The minister is also involved in promoting digital technology to help people become more familiar with innovative technological developments, according to the Taiwan Innovation Center, which created the pavilion by combining US technology and Taiwanese entrepreneurship. The pavilion is to focus on artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, virtual reality, digital learning and the maker movement, the center said, adding that it will give visitors a sneak peek at the future of technology and encourage them to build their own ventures through activities and exhibitions.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day