CANADA
Jobless rate at all-time low
The unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent last month, the lowest since comparable data began being collected in January 1976, official data showed on Friday. The economy added 79,000 jobs last month, as part of an upward trend seen in recent months, Statistics Canada said. For last year as a whole, 423,000 jobs were created, pushing unemployment down from 6.9 percent at the end of 2016 to 5.7 percent last month.
EUROPEAN UNION
Inflation dips 0.1 percent
Official figures show that inflation across the 19-nation eurozone dipped modestly last month, largely because of a moderation in the growth of energy price rises. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, on Friday said that consumer prices across the eurozone were 1.4 percent higher in the year to last month, down from 1.5 percent the month before. The decline means that inflation remains well below the European Central Bank’s policy goal of just less than 2 percent.
REAL ESTATE
HNA to sell London offices
HNA Group Co (海航集團) has approached brokers about the possible sale of two office buildings in London’s Canary Wharf financial district as it seeks to shed assets and cut its debt burden, two people with knowledge of the discussions said. The Chinese conglomerate has sought advice from brokers on the value of 30 South Colonnade and 17 Columbus Courtyard with a view to selling them, two of the people said. HNA has also approached investors that might be interested in purchasing the properties, which cost the company about £366 million (US$497 million) in total, another person said.
BRAZIL
Wind turbine talks near end
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA is in final negotiations to supply about 700 megawatts of wind turbines for power plants in the nation, people familiar with the talks said. The deals are to supply equipment for projects that Voltalia SA, EDP Renovaveis SA, Enel Green Power SpA, and Neoenergia SA are developing in northeast Brazil, the people said. The orders are all for wind farms that won government-organized power auctions last month.
GERMANY
Metals workers plan strike
Tens of thousands of workers in the metals and engineering industries are to stage walkouts at companies across the nation from next week as part of a campaign for higher pay, powerful union IG Metall said on Friday. The nation’s biggest union is demanding a 6 percent wage rise this year for about 3.9 million workers in the sector. Employers have dismissed IG Metall’s pay claim as excessive and so far offered only a 2 percent increase as well as a 200 euro (US$241) one-off payment in the first quarter.
RETAIL
Neiman replacing CEO
Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group is naming a Ralph Lauren executive to succeed its chief executive and president Karen Katz, who is retiring. The Dallas-based retailer, which has been looking to cut its debt from leveraged buyouts and reshape how it markets to customers’ changing buying habits, said that Geoffroy van Raemdonck is to officially start on Feb. 12. Katz is to continue to serve on the company’s board of directors.
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