GERMANY
Budget surplus reported
The nation notched up a record budget surplus in the first half of the year, official figures showed yesterday. All levels of government — federal, regional and municipal — took in a combined 18.3 billion euros (US$21.6 billion) more than they spent, data from federal statistics authority Destatis showed. Government revenue from taxes, social contributions and other sources amounted to 724 billion euros, a 4.3 percent increase on the same period last year. Spending grew at the same pace, adding 4.3 percent to reach 705 billion euros. With GDP in the first half of the year at 1.6 trillion euros, the budget surplus stood at about 1.1 percent of GDP.
JAPAN
Consumer prices rise
Consumer prices rose for the seventh straight month last month, chiefly due to energy costs, government data showed yesterday. After stripping out the volatile cost of fresh food, the inflation rate came in at 0.5 percent, in line with market expectations, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Excluding fresh food and energy, prices edged up just 0.1 percent last month. The figures are still way off the Bank of Japan’s inflation target of 2 percent — which is seen as crucial to conquering Japan’s long struggle to slay deflation.
AVIATION
Flyadeal to start operations
Saudi Arabia’s new budget carrier Flyadeal on Thursday said it would start flying next month, as the kingdom seeks to expand air services to boost tourism in an overhaul of its oil-dependent economy. Flyadeal, a subsidiary of the state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines Corp, is to operate a fleet of eight Airbus A320ceo aircraft and initially fly domestic routes before expanding in the Middle East. The airline said it would commence operations on the Saudi National Day on Sept. 23, with the entire fleet expected to be delivered by the middle of next year.
ENTERTAINMENT
Spotify, Warner ink deal
Spotify Ltd signed a new global agreement with Warner Music Group, giving the online-music pioneer long-term deals with all three major record labels as it prepares to go public. Warner Music announced the deal on Thursday via social media. Terms were not disclosed. Spotify, the biggest on-demand streaming service with more than 60 million paying subscribers, plans to skip a traditional share sale and list directly on the New York Stock Exchange late this year or early next year, people familiar with the matter said. Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and Sony Corp’s music division signed new accords with Spotify earlier this year.
BANKING
US charges managers
US authorities have charged two managers at French bank Societe Generale with taking part in a scheme to manipulate the global US dollar LIBOR benchmark interest rate. Danielle Sindzingre, 54, the bank’s former global head of treasury, and her subordinate Muriel Bescond, 49, its former head of treasury in Paris, were accused in an indictment filed in a New York federal court of submitting false information about the rates at which the bank was able to borrow money. The two defendants are not in the US and John Marzulli, a spokesman for US prosecutors in Brooklyn, declined to comment on whether or when they might be extradited.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)