ECONOMY
China sees 6.8% Q3 growth
China’s economic growth stayed relatively stable in the latest quarter, buoyed by strength in retail spending and exports. Growth edged down to a still-robust 6.8 percent in the three months ending last month compared with a year earlier, down from the previous quarter’s 6.9 percent, data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed yesterday. Retail sales rose 10.3 percent last month over a year earlier, down slightly from the 10.4 percent rate of the first three quarters, the bureau said.
TRADE
Japan’s surplus soars 37.7%
Japan’s trade surplus last month expanded nearly 40 percent from a year earlier as exports of cars and chemical products surged on brisk demand from major trading partners, the government said yesterday. The nation logged a surplus of ¥670.2 billion (US$5.9 billion), up 37.7 percent from a year earlier, data from the Japanese Ministry of Finance showed. The figure was higher than market expectations of a ¥560 billion surplus.
SOUTH KOREA
Central bank raises forecast
The Bank of Korea yesterday raised its growth forecast for this year, despite tensions over Pyongyang’s increasing missile and nuclear threats. The bank said it expects Asia’s fourth-largest economy to expand 3 percent this year, up from its earlier prediction of 2.8 percent. It forecast expansion of 2.9 percent for next year.
ECONOMY
US sees small expansion
The US economy expanded at a modest to moderate pace last month through early this month despite the impact of hurricanes on some regions, the US Federal Reserve said in its latest Beige Book report on Wednesday, but there were still few signs of an acceleration in inflation. Three of the Fed’s 12 districts — Richmond, Atlanta and Dallas — reported major disruptions from the hurricanes. Most contacts in the Dallas Federal Reserve region did not expect significant long-term disruption.
RESTAURANTS
Firm seeks protection
The owner of Romano’s Macaroni Grill on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, blaming its falling fortunes on the changing tastes of diners who increasingly do not want to eat at sit-down restaurant chains. Romano’s Macaroni Grill’s owner Mac Acquisition LLC said its 93 restaurants would remain open. However, since the beginning of the year, it has closed nearly 40 unprofitable locations.
INSURANCE
Hurricane claims hit insurer
Swiss group Zurich Insurance Group AG yesterday said it expects to receive about US$700 million in claims related to hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in the third quarter. After tax, the losses were expected to be about US$620 million. The losses were “not expected to have a material impact on the group’s overall financial strength and capital flexibility,” Zurich Insurance said in a statement.
E-COMMERCE
Blue Apron cuts more jobs
Blue Apron is cutting about 320 jobs, less than four months after the meal-kit seller became a public company. The New York-based firm, which had nearly 5,400 employees in June, on Wednesday said the layoffs represent about 6 percent of its workforce. The company said the cuts were at its corporate offices and warehouses where its meal kits are packed and shipped.
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