RETAIL
Baby formula recall doubled
French baby-milk maker Lactalis Group yesterday said it was more than doubling the quantity of formula and other products recalled over salmonella fears in the second such move in two weeks. The latest recall involves 720 batches of products sold in France and overseas and follows an initial recall of 625 batches, or nearly 7,000 tonnes of products, on Sunday last week. The new recall concerned powders and infant cereals of the group’s Picot and Milumel brands, as well as the Taranis powdered amino-acid mix, the company said.
NEW ZEALAND
Building rebound boosts GDP
The economy grew 0.6 percent in the third quarter thanks to a rebound in construction, official data released yesterday showed. The rise in quarterly GDP was in line with market expectations, taking annual growth to 3.0 percent. Construction jumped 3.6 percent over the quarter, while service industries rose 0.6 percent, with health and residential care leading the way. Primary industries fell 0.4 percent, partly because wet weather lowered milk production, Statistics New Zealand said.
JAPAN
Inflation target unchanged
The Bank of Japan yesterday opted to keep its ultra-lax monetary policy unchanged, saying rising private consumption, exports and business investment were signs that a moderate recovery has taken hold. In a policy statement, the central bank said it is committed to its nearly five-year-old 2 percent inflation target, but deemed inflation expectations to be in a “weakening phase.” It forecast that inflation would likely gradually rise thanks to tightening capacity. The central bank kept its key policy rate at minus-0.1 percent.
INDONESIA
Fitch grants rating upgrade
The nation won a second rating upgrade this year, with Fitch Ratings raising its assessment to one step above investment grade, months after S&P Global Ratings lifted the nation out of “junk” status. The rating on the nation’s long-term, foreign currency-denominated debt was raised one level to “BBB” with a stable outlook, Fitch said in a statement yesterday. The upgrade puts Indonesia on a par with the Philippines, which received an upgrade just this month. Fitch cited rising foreign-exchange reserves, the focus on macro stability and strong economic growth as drivers of the upgrade.
EGYPT
Reforms bring IMF funds
The IMF on Wednesday approved the third installment of a US$12 billion, three-year loan for Egypt, bringing the total released to date to just more than US$6 billion. The IMF board approved the latest US$2 billion disbursement under the deal signed in November last year, after a fund team last month praised Cairo’s progress on “bold” economic reforms. The IMF said Egypt’s economy is expected to grow 4.2 percent this year and the inflation rate is expected to fall to 13 percent by the end of next year.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Broker allows bitcoin trades
E-Trade Financial Corp said it plans to allow customers to trade bitcoin futures from Cboe Global Markets Inc, joining competitors including CME Group Inc in offering the contracts after monitoring their debut earlier this month. Cboe futures are “now available,” the New York-based online brokerage wrote on its Web site late on Wednesday. A spokesman confirmed the move.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained