EGYPT
Net foreign reserves surge
The nation’s net foreign reserves rose to the highest level in more than five years last month, as the country started receiving money from the IMF and global lenders. Reserves reached US$23.1 billion, up from US$19 billion in October, according to data posted on the central bank’s Web site. The nation got the first US$2.75 billion installment of a US$12 billion loan from the IMF last month and the central bank was able to secure US$2 billion in funding from international banks. Central bank Governor Tarek Amer has said he is targeting US$25 billion in reserves by the end of the year. The government also plans to tap the international bond market to raise at least US$2.5 billion in January.
GERMANY
Factory orders rocket
Factory orders surged in October, suggesting growth in Europe’s largest economy will accelerate at the end of the year. Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, jumped 4.9 percent from September, when they fell a revised 0.3 percent, data from the Economy Ministry showed yesterday. The increase was the biggest since July 2014, and compared with a median estimate of 0.6 percent in a Bloomberg survey. Orders gained 6.3 percent from a year earlier. The report adds to signs that Germany’s economy is gathering pace after a slowdown in the third quarter.
CURRENCIES
Yuan investors perturbed
Yuan investors received a shock yesterday when ICAP PLC data showed the currency had slipped to 7.5 per US dollar. The decline, which traders said was an error, showed up on both Google and Xe.com, causing a stir on Twitter, while Bloomberg showed no such moves. ICAP’s prices had the dollar-yuan at about 7.5 yesterday even before the spot market started trading in Shanghai. The official exchange rate rose 0.24 percent to 6.8669 per US dollar as of 11:20am in Shanghai, China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices show. The yuan traded in Hong Kong’s overseas market fell 0.1 percent to 6.8694, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg.
ECONOMICS
Qatar gets Keynesian
Qatar is invest up to US$13 billion in major infrastructure projects next year despite a slump in revenues resulting from low energy prices, the Qatari Minister of Finance Ali Shareef al-Emadi said yesterday. Al-Emadi predicted growth of 3.4 percent next year, in line with an IMF estimate and up from a projected 3.2 percent this year. The minister added that the 2022 World Cup host had already spent almost 375 billion riyals (US$103 billion dollars) on large-scale projects.
FINANCE
Arrow to buy Zenith
Debt purchaser and manager Arrow Global Group PLC said it is to enter the Italian market by buying financial services business Zenith Service SpA for an enterprise value of 17 million euros (US$18.31 million). Arrow Global, which buys defaulted customer accounts from retail banks and credit card companies, said the deal, which needs to be approved by the Bank of Italy, is expected to complete in the first half of next year. “Today’s agreed acquisition of Zenith marks our strategic entry into Italy... Zenith is our first step in creating a strong market proposition in Italy, where Arrow and Zenith already share some common clients,” Arrow Global chief executive officer Tom Drury said.
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
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],”