MACROECONOMICS
Lagarde cautions vigilance
IMF managing director Christine Lagarde yesterday said the global economy was showing broad-based growth, but the landscape was shifting with heightened risks of trade disputes, monetary policy normalization and technological change. Lagarde, speaking to an IMF conference in Jakarta, said the IMF was expecting global growth to reach 3.9 percent this year and next, up from 3.7 percent last year. As ASEAN countries are preparing for higher interest rates in advanced economies, Lagarde said policymakers need to stay vigilant about its effect on financial stability and volatile capital flows.
INTEREST RATES
S Korea leaves rate at 1.5%
The Bank of Korea left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.5 percent in Governor Lee Ju-yeol’s final policy meeting, as it weighs risks to its economic outlook against the cost of raising borrowing costs for the nation’s indebted households. South Korea’s solid economic growth is continuing, the bank said in a statement, adding that while inflation has slowed, it was expected to pick up toward the target of 2 percent in the second half of this year.
CHEMICALS
BASF reports surge in profit
German chemicals giant BASF AG yesterday reported a massive leap in profit last year, as the worldwide economic upturn fueled demand and stoked prices for its products. Net profit increased 50 percent year-on-year to 6.1 billion euros (US$7.52 billion), BASF said in a statement, in line with a forecast it offered last month. Operating profit increased almost 36 percent to 8.5 billion euros, while revenue was up 12 percent at 64.5 billion euros — beating forecasts from analysts surveyed by FactSet Research Systems Inc.
E-COMMERCE
EBay to buy Qoo10 assets
EBay Inc, operator of the namesake online marketplace, is close to a deal for the Japanese assets of e-commerce site Qoo10, a person familiar with the matter said. The San Jose, California-based company is buying the assets from its joint venture partner Giosis Pte, the person said. Under the proposed US$700 million deal, eBay would give up its stake in Giosis, the person said. Japan is the biggest market for Qoo10, and part of an e-commerce business that also operates in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Circle purchases Poloniex
Circle Internet Financial Ltd, a closely held mobile payments firm backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, said it acquired Poloniex Inc, one of the largest digital token exchanges. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Fortune magazine earlier reported that the deal was for about US$400 million. Poloniex, ranked as the 14th largest cryptocurrency exchange by data tracker CoinMarketCap.com, said on its Web site that the US-based company was formed in January 2014 and is available in more than 100 countries.
TAXES
Super-rich flocking to Italy
Millionaires from Russia to Norway and the US are seeking to take advantage of Italy’s low tax rates for the super-rich. Italy last year unveiled a measure allowing ultra-wealthy individuals taking up residency to pay a flat tax of 100,000 euros per year. About 150 people, including some with wealth of more than “hundreds of millions,” have inquired about the measure, Fabrizio Pagani, head of the office of the Italian minister of economy and finance, said in London.
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