UNITED KINGDOM
Income recovery slows
UK living standards rose at their slowest pace since 2012 in the past year, with the post-crisis recovery in incomes going into reverse for the poorest 30 percent of families, according to the Resolution Foundation. Typical disposable incomes after housing costs rose just 0.9 percent, held back by the pound-induced surge in inflation following the 2016 Brexit referendum, the London-based think tank estimated in a report yesterday. Poorer households were also victims of welfare cuts and saw their incomes decline by 0.3 percent. The foundation estimated the loss to poorer families at as much as £150 (US$200) a year as higher wages and lower taxes were not enough to offset cuts to tax credits and child benefit. Child poverty almost certainly rose last year, and the increase since 2010 has been underestimated in government data, it said.
AUTOMAKERS
VW poaches BMW executive
Volkswagen AG (VW) poached BMW AG’s purchasing chief Markus Duesmann, as the German auto giant bolsters its executive ranks following the surprise arrest of the Audi brand’s long-time boss. Duesmann, 49, is to join Volkswagen’s management board in an undefined role as soon as possible, the Wolfsburg-based company said yesterday in a statement. He will be a top contender to eventually replace Audi interim CEO Bram Schot, people familiar with the matter said. VolMoving to resolve uncertainty at Audi is particularly important. Former boss Rupert Stadler, who also oversaw groupwide sales activities for Volkswagen, was arrested last month over allegations that he tried to tamper with evidence in the diesel-cheating scandal.
JAPAN
Manufacturing PMI slides
Japan’s manufacturing sector lost steam this month as demand for exports weakened. The Nikkei Japan purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturers showed a preliminary reading of 51.6, the lowest since November 2016 and down from 53 last month. Output came in at 52.4, down from 53.6, and the index for stocks of finished goods fell. A reading above 50 indicates the sector is expanding, while one below that signals a contraction. “New business grew at a much weaker rate and was broadly flat, while export demand, despite further yen depreciation, deteriorated for a second month running,” said Joe Hayes, an economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey. “Slowing demand presents a worrying development given input delivery times lengthened to the sharpest extent in over seven years,” he wrote in the data release.
BANKING
Nordea may challenge fine
The biggest Nordic bank is considering taking on the EU’s top markets regulator after being handed a fine for providing credit ratings without a license. Nordea Bank AB, together with four other major Nordic banks, was called out by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for selling so-called shadow ratings to corporate clients without permission. Each firm was told to pay a fine of 495,000 euros (US$580,000) for the breach. Nordea on Monday said that it discontinued shadow ratings in 2016, “although we disagree with ESMA” on the interpretation of the rules. “As for today’s fine, Nordea has just received the information and will decide if to appeal after having analyzed the information,” the lender said in a statement.
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