CHINA
Exports drag, imports rally
Exports grew slower than forecast last month, hit by weak global demand, but analysts said yesterday that a jump in imports indicated a pick-up domestically and point to further improvement. Exports increased 5.5 percent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs said, down from 7.2 percent in July and well off the 6 percent in a Bloomberg News survey. Imports climbed 13.3 percent, beating July’s 11 percent and the 10 percent forecast in the survey. The trade surplus for the month came in at US$42.0 billion.
JAPAN
Growth unexpectedly slow
The economy grew at a slower pace in the April-to-June quarter, not the surprisingly strong spurt indicated by an earlier estimate, revised government data showed yesterday, although signs of a revival are holding up. The Cabinet Office said GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2.5 percent. That second preliminary reading is a dramatic adjustment from the first preliminary reading, released last month, of 4 percent growth. On a quarterly basis, the economy grew 0.6 percent, the latest data showed.
GERMANY
Imports beat exports in July
Imports outpaced exports in July, slightly narrowing the nation’s massive and oft-criticized trade surplus, provisional data showed yesterday. Exports from Europe’s economic powerhouse were up 0.2 percent compared with June, while imports rose by 2.2 percent, federal statistics office Destatis said, as both figures rebounded from last month’s dips. Germany’s trade surplus dropped from 21.2 billion euros (US$25.5 billion) in June to 19.5 billion euros in July, Destatis said.
UNITED STATES
‘Interest can keep growing’
The central bank can continue to raise interest rates gradually, despite persistent low inflation that could suggest a fundamental change in the economy, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said on Thursday. Dudley said while he has been surprised that inflation has remained stubbornly below the central bank’s 2 percent target, even as the economy has grown steadily, that has not changed his basic outlook for the course of the benchmark interest rate.
FINANCE
Mastercard shares hit record
Mastercard Inc shares climbed to a record in New York after the payments network boosted its earnings growth target and said it is aiming for the “high end” of its previous full-year revenue forecast. Shares gained as much as 4.3 percent, the biggest intraday jump since January last year. Mastercard on Thursday said that it aims for 20 percent annual growth in earnings per share in the three-year period ending next year. The company also expects this year’s revenue to increase at the high end of its previous target of low-double-digit growth.
AIRLINES
Fares can drop 30%: Aero
A new South Korean budget carrier says it can help push airfare down by as much as 30 percent and still stay profitable in a market already crowded with six rivals. Aero K Airlines Co, backed by venture capital funds, plans to use new, fuel-efficient aircraft and a base where airport levies are at least 60 percent cheaper than the nation’s main hub in Seoul, chairman Kang Byung-ho said in an interview. The operator expects to get a permit this month and start services as early as April next year, he 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],”