INDONESIA
Growth slower than expected
The economy expanded at a slower pace in the third quarter than economists expected, a disappointing outcome for the government as it struggles to boost growth. Gross domestic product rose 5.06 percent from a year earlier, according to data released yesterday by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The median estimate of 17 surveyed economists was for growth of 5.2 percent. The economy grew 3.18 percent from the previous quarter, just short of the economists’ estimate of 3.2 percent. “The third-quarter GDP outturn poses downside risks to our forecast of growth accelerating to 5.5 percent in the second half from 5 percent in the first half, hence our full-year 2017 GDP growth of 5.3 percent,” Nomura Holdings Inc economists Euben Paracuelles and Brian Tan said.
E-COMMERCE
NetEase ups global spending
NetEase Inc (網易科技), China’s second-largest video game publisher, is deepening a push into e-commerce with plans to increase spending on products from the US, Europe and Japan to sell to local consumers. The company’s Kaola e-commerce business is to buy about US$11 billion of inventory over the next three years from the US, Europe and Japan to woo customers with everything from Dutch baby formula to Japanese cosmetics, Kaola chief executive Zhang Lei (張蕾) said in an interview. Best known for games, including bringing global title Overwatch to the Chinese market, Netease is bolstering growth by tapping into local demand for established international brands.
GERMANY
Factory orders rise again
Factory orders unexpectedly rose for a second month, adding to signs that Europe’s largest economy is to continue expanding at a solid pace. Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, increased 1 percent in September after an upwardly revised surge of 4.1 percent in August, Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy data showed yesterday. The typically volatile reading compares with a median estimate for a 1.1 percent decline in a Bloomberg survey. Demand was up 9.5 percent from the previous year. The nation is on track for continued robust growth in the third quarter, the Bundesbank said, with manufacturing set to remain a “pillar” of the upswing thanks to “vigorous” export demand and an “excellent” level of orders. Strong momentum in the 19-nation euro region and the European Central Bank’s decision to extend asset purchases into next year will also support the economy.
FINANCE
Bad loans upset DBS profits
DBS Group Holdings Ltd chief executive Piyush Gupta was determined to put soured energy-industry loans behind him — even if it meant profit missing the lowest analyst estimate by a wide margin. Southeast Asia’s largest bank yesterday said it boosted bad-loan allowances more than sixfold in the third quarter, resulting in a 23 percent drop in net income to S$822 million (US$602 million). The move “will enable investors to return their focus to our operating performance and digital agenda,” Gupta said in a statement. Not sharing his optimism, investors sent the shares down the most in five weeks. Singapore banks have been struggling with rising provisions against the troubled regional oil and gas sector since Swiber Holdings Ltd filed for judicial management last year. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd (華僑銀行) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (大華銀行) said in their quarterly reports that the energy-services industry remains under stress.
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
India’s ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts say. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games. “Many will move to offshore platforms, because of the addictive nature — they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit,” said Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst. “It [also] leads to fraud and scams, because everything is now
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