South Korea yesterday left its key interest rate unchanged, with markets unnerved by political turmoil at home and global uncertainty following the shock US presidential election result.
The Bank of Korea held its benchmark rate at a record-low 1.25 percent for the fifth straight month.
In a statement, the central bank said it would closely monitor “uncertainties in domestic and external conditions” over the coming months, with a particular eye on any change in monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve.
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The bank said it expected the global economy to maintain a modest recovery, but warned of the possible impact of economic policy changes by the new US administration and Britain’s exit from the EU.
The uncertainty generated by Donald Trump’s unexpected US presidential election triumph has coincided with political paralysis in South Korea, where a snowballing corruption scandal has left South Korean President Park Geun-hye fighting for her job.
The scandal, centered on a close personal friend of the president, has seen Park’s approval rating plunge to a single-digit percentage and weekly mass protests have seen tens of thousands take to the streets to demand the president’s resignation.
The Bank of Korea made a surprise interest rate cut in June, citing the need to support the sluggish economy.
South Korea’s exports, the mainstay of Asia’s fourth-largest economy, have struggled to emerge from a prolonged slump and now there are real worries among major exporters that Trump’s protectionist campaign policies will become a reality.
“Looking at the [South] Korean economy, exports have continued their trend of decline, while the improvements in domestic demand activities appear to have weakened a bit,” the central bank said.
The South Korean president and Trump spoke by telephone on Thursday, with the US president-elect vowing that the US commitment to the security of its key Asian ally in the face of North Korean provocations would not waver.
“We are going to be with you 100 percent,” Trump said, according to a statement from the presidential Blue House.
Trump caused consternation during his campaign when he threatened to withdraw the 28,500 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea unless Seoul paid more for their upkeep.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained